To find your way
by ElvPrincess
Summary: Follow the lifes of Alice Tepes and Mary Riddle, two very different girls, who struggle with their everyday life at Hogwarts. AlicexDraco MaryxTheo
1. The selection

The Selection

Mary:

"Riddle, Mary"

This was the moment, the words, which initiated my whole destiny. My whole life depended on the next few words of this piece of old leather. The Sorting Hat of Hogwarts.

Slightly shaking but with long strides I climbed the few steps to the three-legged stool and sat down on it. All eyes were on me and I felt my teachers burning gazes on my neck.

Without warning, everything turned black. I wanted to adjust the hat on my head when a squeaky voice rang out: "A Riddle!? What am I going to do, or rather, what will you do? Hmm... so, where do I send you little one?"

I didn't know why he was so surprised about my name. As far as I knew, both my parents weren't wizards. I got the letter unexpected and my father had just laughed and said that it must be a stupid joke.

"Well, let's try again... SLYTHERIN!"

Somewhat surprised, I got up and went to the applauding table. Why this house? I was Muggle-born! All I knew about this house was that it was the most Muggle-hating house in Hogwarts! And I was assigned to them?! Now this had to be a joke...

_Alice:_

_''SLYTHERIN!" _

_Mary looked absolutely terrified. The question was why? I mean, I knew that there were some bad apples in Slytherin, but in general, Students of Slytherin had quite the bright future. And in all my time here I had met quite a lot of friendly Slytherins._

_Mary Riddle, I had heard that name before. Auntie Minerva and the other teachers had mentioned this name, whenever they thought that I wasn't listening. _

_Since I was a curious person, I had researched the name, which was incidentally not so easy, because I had to go to the Restricted Section in the library. I'd spent hours in the library before I had discovered her name. Riddle, the birth name of Voldemort. I was wondering if she knew that. Judging from her look, at the word Slytherin, she probably didn't. But some of the other Students may know. I looked over to the Slytherin Table and studied some of the new faces. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary._

_,,Nott, Theodore.'' Immediately I looked to my right. Next to me stood my closest friend and dearest friend Theo. We had known each other since childhood, which in itself was exceptional enough, considering the circumstances. But the fact that our families were very different, never bothered us. For years now, we talked about the day we would enter Hogwarts together, in the hopes that we would end up in the same house. _

_Theo looked at me for reassurance and I gave him a smile. I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a light push forward. Theo smiled back at me before going up to the stool and sitting down on it. The hat was put on his head and it didn't take long for it to decide._

_,,SLYTHERIN!'' Theo gave me an insecure look, before going to his assigned table. I started to grow nervous. It was to be expected that he would end up in Slytherin, his father had been in the same house. But we both knew that I didn't have the same odds he had. That's why we had both secretly hoped, that we would be put into Ravenclaw. _

_My look went back to Theo. He was sitting next to a boy who had the same light hair-colour he had. It was a weird match, considering that they were the only ones with such light hair. The boy next to Theo said something and everybody around him started to laugh, except Theo. He rolled his eyes and looked back at her. He mouthed 'Please don't leave me alone'. I giggled and looked back to the guy next to him. I knew who he was, the older Slytherin Students had talked about him quite a bit last year. She hadn't known what all the fuss was about until Peter, one of the older and friendlier Slytherins had explained everything to her. This boy was Draco Malfoy. He descended from one of the oldest and purest wizard families. Adding to that, his father was Lucius Malfoy, former Slytherin and a very powerful man in the wizarding world. So yes, Draco Malfoy was every Slytherins wet dream. Well, except for Theo. Theo had never cared about things like that. He was a soft boy and didn't judge you about things you didn't have any influence on. And from what I heard, Draco didn't have much to offer, except for his father and his blood. Theo had known Draco from before, because his father had arranged a couple of meetings for them. He wanted Nott to have a good time as Draco's friend in Hogwarts._

_"Tepes, Alice.'' I raised my head and looked at Auntie Minerva's face. She nodded at me and I nervously walked to the stool. When I sat on it, she put the hat on my head. I didn't want to be separated from Theo but I honestly didn't think that I belonged to Slytherin_

_"Oh, that's interesting … GRYFFINDOR!'' _

_The hat was taken from me again, and I stood up. Minerva smiled at me as I walked past her. But the face I really cared about was Theos. I looked at him while going to the Gryffindor table. He seemed as sad as I felt. Gryffindor and Slytherin. Our friendship was going to be tested. I sat down at the table, between a brown-haired girl and a dark-haired boy who had made some space for me. _

_"Hey, I'm Hermione, and you?", She held her hand out to me._

_I shook it and said, "Alice, nice to meet you."_

_I felt the blood flow through her hand and I released it quickly. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem to be in a room full of people. Sure, I could smell the blood of every living being in this room but that wasn't a problem, as long as I did not have to feel it. The teachers of Hogwarts had all tried their best to help me learn and control my vampire side. It took a while but right now I was in optimal control of my powers._

_I talked to Hermione for a while and observed from time to time, who got assigned to which House. After every first-year student had been assigned to a house, Dumbledore gave a short speech and then everyone began to eat. I wasn't too hungry though. Being separated from Theo like this killed my appetite._

Mary:

Silently I poked around in my food. They all seemed to know each other here! The only one who could not join in? Exactly, me. A brown-haired girl turned to me and asked "Hey. Mary, right? Are you a pureblood?"

I looked at her with raised eyebrows. ,,A what now?''

,,Oh my god, I can't believe you haven't heard of that term before. Pureblood, means that both of your parents and all of your lineage, were wizards. You know, your Family must be clear of muggles.'', she explained proudly. Ah Muggles, that was a term that I knew. My Grandma had explained that word to me. Muggles, were the non Magic people, the normal ones.

So I sighed and replied in a defeated tone: ''Muggle-born"

With that answer, I brought everyone around me to silence. They all looked at me. Some baffled but most of them rather contemptuous.

Unfaced by their behaviour I went on poking my food and waited for my house to calm down. Of course, this was not the case. A boy laughed and turned to me.

"Listen Riddle. The next few years are going to be the worst of your life you dirty Mudblood."

Ok. That was enough. Without giving him an answer, I got up and left the hall.

In the corner of my eye I registered that a girl from the Gryffindor table stood up too. Ignoring that, I walked to the dungeons and wanted to go down when I was stopped by a cold hand on my shoulder. I turned around and looked into the eyes of the boy, who had insulted me.

"Not so fast Mudblood. I was not done yet! "I tried to remember his name. Oh yeah Draco. Draco Malfoy. And behind him there were two other boys with ugly faces.

"Take your hand off my shoulder Malfoy!" I hissed. For a second he looked at me in surprise, but quickly pulled himself together and stood menacingly in front of me.

At that moment I saw the Gryffindor girl from earlier. Up close, she looked a little pale. She was heading towards us. What did she want?

_Alice:_

_I saw how Draco and two other idiots stood up to follow Mary Riddle. Normally I wouldn't have cared at all, but Theo had secretly and in a low voice asked me to go after them. I hadn't been paying attention to the Slytherin table after we had started to eat, but apparently something went wrong, or else Theo wouldn't want me to step in. Sighing I got up and went after them. _

_Draco had caught up to Mary and grabbed her by the shoulder. The three idiots had built up in front of Mary and Draco raised his hand to slap her. _

_Mary had noticed me and was focused on me while the others had still not discovered my presence. I used my Speed and placed myself in front of Mary, just in time to catch Draco's hand._

_"Are you beating girls Draco? That's not very nice of you..." I squeezed his arm tighter making the pain visible in his face. The two gorillas behind him both took a step back. _

_"Let go of me, you monster! I know exactly who you are! You are the daughter of this killer, Vlad. You and your father are monsters!"_

_"Well, since you already know who I am, you know what I eat, and currently I have an enormous appetite for pureblood ... " I licked my lips demonstratively and then released him. Draco gave me a scared and angry look before he ran away with his friends right behind him. I turned around to Mary._

_"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. You should take better care of yourself. I don't know what they wanted but I guess that they will come back for you."_

_Mary looked a bit afraid and suddenly I felt bad for saying that._

_,,Hey don't worry, you're not alone. Apparently you have more friends than you know.'' I winked before turning around and leaving._

Mary:

Sceptical, I watched the Gryffindor go. Why had she helped me? And why had Draco called her a monster? When I decided to go after her, she was already out the door and gone. I stood there for a few minutes until I turned around and walked to the dungeons. Draco's words kept turning around in my head. Could he be right?

I sighed heavily, waiting for the prefect, who could tell me the password. Why had I, to be in Slytherin? Why no one else? I was so deep in my thoughts, that I did not notice how the first year with the prefect approached me.

Only when the sharp voice of a pug-faced Girl yanked me out of my mind, I realized it. "Careful people, Mudblood Alert!" She shrieked and earned approving giggles of bystanders. I closed my fists but didn't let any other sign of my annoyance show.

"What's the password?" I asked annoyed.

I could actually have guessed the answer. "Pureblood." Inwardly screaming I entered the common room and rushed in the girls dormitory. Argh! I did not understand why this blood thing was so important. Actually, I didn't even want to know.

_Alice:_

_I didn't even get back to the great Hall, before Minerva had caught up with me. She gave me a lecture about my behaviour towards Draco. I defended myself saying that I only protected this girl. Minerva gave me a disapproving look, but she knew that I was right, so she let it slip. I wanted to go back to the great Hall but Minerva advised me to go grab my things from my room and move into the Gryffindor dormitory._

_Going back to my room felt weird, because I knew that after today this wouldn't be my room anymore. I had lived here for the last five years. The only thing that made it easier was the fact, that I didn't need to leave this place completely. I would still bi in Hogwarts, just not in my room. With a deep breath I took my suitcase, that I had already prepared in advance, and left the room. A bit sad I walked over to the Gryffindor dormitory. In front of the portrait I took a deep breath and steeled myself for what was to come in the future. _

_After entering I got a couple of surprised looks. Everyone's baggage had been brought up to their room, so the question that was hanging in the air was, why did I have to bring my own luggage? Well, at least no one actually asked, cause this wasn't Slytherin, it was Gryffindor and most people were friendly here. Let's say that was what I was hoping. Finally, Hermione greeted me and helped me get my suitcase up to the room she was staying in. I took over the last free bed. I would have liked to lay on my bed for a while, but the other girls in the room had started talking about the school, boys, and their homes. This was a conversation I didn't want to have so I excused myself and left the room. I wanted to take a walk to distract myself because Draco's words came back to me. It wasn't just him though. There had been a lot of people to insult my father and me. Auntie Minerva, Dumbledore and Theo had always tried to shield me from those comments, but this was a world of magic after all and nothing stayed hidden. _

_Those people all thought that my father was a monster and for years I defended him every time. But what I said never mattered. The people only gave me sad or angry looks. They either thought that I was just an ignorant little girl defending her father or that I was just as bad as my father. And Malfoy was just like any of these other idiots._

_Annoyed, I walked through the corridors of Hogwarts, looking for anything that might distract me and lift my mood. As I looked around I noticed a dark-haired boy staring out of a window. I had never seen him around here before so he must have been a first year just like me and he was wearing Gryffindor Clothing, so I decided to approach him._

_,,Can you see anything interesting out there?'', I asked him with my hands behind my back. Surprised by my sudden appearance he turned around and after a second of confusion he smiled._

_,,Everything here is interesting.', he answered._

_,,So I guess that your parents aren't wizards.'' Suddenly the boy seemed sad. Apparently, I had made a big mistake and I instantly regretted my words._

_,,Actually they were… but they died when I was still a baby, so I grew up with my aunt and my uncle. And what can I say? They aren't nice people, at least not to me.'' I was surprised and saddened by his story. It was weird, I didn't think that there was someone here with a similar story to mine. In some way, I shared his pain._

_,,I was raised by my aunt too. By the way, I'm Alice, proud niece of Professor McGonagall.'' I said, with a small smile._

_,,Harry. Nice to meet you.''_

_,,Well Harry, if you ever have a question about this place you are very welcome to ask me, I was practically raised here and I know Hogwarts quite well.'' Harry started to smile._

_,,If you say it like that…''_

_We spent a long while talking about Hogwarts and the area surrounding it. Turns out that Harry had a ton of questions about everything in the wizarding world. It was fun to explain those things to him. He really brightened up my day._


	2. Lessons and Complications

Mary:

Getting up turned out to be very pleasant, I had been worried about this moment the night before, but I was happy to find out that everything went better than I had expected. The girls ignored me, and I was able to ignore them. At breakfast our Homeroom teacher handed us our timetables and I was pleased to see, that our first two lessons were transfiguration with the Gryffindors. Like this I had the chance to meet the girl from yesterday and maybe find out something about her or those mysterious friends she had been talking about.

I had been so eager to get some answers that I ended up in the classroom too early. Surprisingly, I wasn't the only Student that was here. A light-haired boy was already sitting at one of the tables. He looked up when I entered the room and I noticed that he was a Slytherin too. I immediately felt insecure, maybe I should just leave again, but then the boy gave me small smile, before turning back around. I was absolutely astonished. He was the first nice Slytherin I've encountered. Slowly I chose a seat not too far away from the boy and sat down on it. After a couple of silent minutes, I had found the courage to say something, but before I had the chance to do so, the door opened again, and a lot of Students came in. Apparently, no one wanted to risk being late. My voice got stuck in my throat the moment I saw Draco and his goons were a part of this group. Sighing I lowered my head and concentrated on the paper in front of me. I had started to draw some random things on it, to keep me occupied. The Students settled down and started chatting. I tried to block their voices out when suddenly everything turned quiet. Wondering about what had happened I looked up and noticed that everyone was staring in the same direction. Following their gaze, I realized why everyone seemed so shocked. The girl from yesterday was sitting next to the friendly Slytherin boy, and from the looks of it, they didn't seem to care about what the others seemed to think. Now, I was no expert on the matter, but this seemed to be out of the ordinary. The Silence was interrupted by the door opening again. More Students entered the room and this time they were Gryffindors. They also saw the unusual pair sitting together, but that didn't stop them from talking. They seemed to be more open about this. How I wished that I was a Gryffindor. Looking around I noticed that suddenly there was a cat sitting on top of the teacher's desk. How odd.

It didn't take much longer for the room to fill itself. Once it was time for the lesson to start, the cat turned into Professor McGonagall. She distributed cups and a book, while explaining what we were going to learn this year. She told us what we needed to write down and then turned back into a cat to show us how it needed to be done. At this moment the door opened again and two Gryffindor boys hurried in, talking about how happy they were that Professor McGonagall, wasn't here. I felt bad for them and at the same time I was very glad that I wasn't in their position. The Professor turned back into her human form and you could just she the shock in the faces of those two. In a strict voice she told them to sit down. I used this moment to turn my attention back to the red-haired Gryffindor girl. Maybe the boy next to her was the one she had been talking about. But why would he help me? So many questions, if only I could get some answers.

"Miss Tepes, please follow the lesson, would you?!"

The girl looked up and I smiled slightly. Her name was a start. I could do some research with that. I wrote it down to make sure that I wouldn't forget it and then brought my attention back to the lesson.

_Alice:_

_I gave Minerva an annoyed look. She knew exactly that I had learned all of that already. Although it wasn't allowed, a lot of the students had taught me a couple of spells. Besides, I had spent a lot of time in the library and read all the books about the basics and some others about more advanced magic.._

_ "Well, now that everyone listens, you can answer my question, Mister Potter." Minerva looked strictly at Harry, who really made an effort to find an answer. Sadly he said something pretty stupid, which wasn't really his mistake since he didn't know any better, but nonetheless Draco and his friends laughed at him. My anger of the previous day resurged and without thinking I crumbled up a little piece of my paper, small enough that Aunt Minerva wouldn't see it and threw it in Draco's direction. The problem was, that Draco chose this moment to turn his head in my direction to say something to the guy next to him. The paper landed in his mouth and from his reaction, it even went in his throat. He began to cough and desperately gasp for air. Shit. His friends started to freak out, it was clear that they didn't know what they should do. One of them was begging my Aunt to do help him. Minerva didn't answer him and instead, looked at me. So she had noticed. Double shit. But she was right, this was my responsibility._

_I turned to Draco and his friends. How was it even possible, that not one of them knew what to do? Sighing I got up and ran behind Draco. I grabbed him around the stomach and then squeezed. Draco didn't seem to know what was happening and put his hands on my arm to hold on to something. Being this close, I realized that his lack of air was already quite severe and I felt really bad. I squeezed him a second time, this time a harder than the first. The piece flew out of him, and after a short flight landed in the hair of a dark haired Slytherin girl. I released my hold over Draco but he still held on my arms for support, while he took a few deep breaths._

_ "Miss Tepes, please proceed with Draco to a nurse. After that please go to Professor Dumbledore." Only now did Draco realize that I was standing next to him. He looked up into my eyes and then quickly pushed me aside. That had been clear... I rolled my eyes but I followed Minerva's orders because I still felt the guilt gnawing at me._

_"Come on, I have a meeting with Dumbledore." I grabbed Draco by the arm and we left the room._

_ "Let go of me, you monster." He yanked his arm away and I didn't try to stop him. There it was again. That word. My guilt almost instantly vanished, but at least I was able to keep my anger in check this time._

_"Well, never forget that a 'Monster' just saved your life." I spit and walked in the direction of Professor Dumbledore's office._

_"Where are you going? You must bring me to a nurse!" He yelled after me. I turned around with a raised eyebrow._

_''I'm pretty sure you're old enough to go there on your own, now please excuse me, princess, I've got a meeting with Dumbledore..." I made a little curtsey before turning back around and walking away._

Mary:

That idiot. Honestly I had to hold back my laugh when the idiot almost suffocated. And I seriously asked myself, why I was in Slytherin?! But it had been pretty funny. Somewhat disappointed, I watched as Alice got up and helped him to spit out whatever was blocking his throat. At noon I went straight towards the library, grabbed a stack of books and began my research. After the fourth book, I finally found a small entry:

Tepes: The Royal vampire Family

The Main House of the Royal Vampire family is located in Romania. The Family dates back to an unknown time. But it's royalty has been established sometime in the 6th century, after Eudaemon Tepes had a hand in the downfall of the western Roman Empire. This earned him the respect and the followers to take over the Vampire leaders in Romania. Since then the Tepes Family has been titled royalty throughout the ages. As of today most members of this famous old vampire family are deceased. The prisoner Vlad Tepes and his daughter Alice Tepes are the only living descendants...

Vampire?! She was a half-vampire?! OK. Now it was clear why Draco had called her a Monster. Her father was described as a criminal, but why was he incarcerated? Putting the bookstacks back, I went through old news articles. Before I could find anything on the Tepes family however another name caught my eye. Mine. 'The horrible descent of Tom Marvolo Riddle.' With a bad feeling in my gut I took it and almost dropped it. The front picture was moving. It changed between a young and rather handsome boy to something that resembled a snakelike person. Although the picture was black and white, the eyes seemed to shine as they looked straight into the camera. Straight at me. This… thing was a Riddle? Shocked I quickly put the paper back and made my way out of the library. Thoughts were running through my mind. Was I related to this person? I needed to know, and only one person would have an answer for me. I decided to write a letter to my grandma. As soon as I had reached my room I grabbed a piece of paper out of my nightstand and wrote down my thoughts.

Hi Grandma

I know that things have been difficult since I got my letter, but I need your help. I came across the name of a former Student, another Riddle. Tom Riddle. Have you ever heard of that name before?

Please answer me.

With love

Mary Riddle

I sealed the letter, searched my owl, and sent her off. Hoping, to get a reply as soon as possible!

_Alice:_

_I walked into Dumbledore's office and looked around. At this moment he was not here yet, but I was sure that he was about to emerge from a dark corner. The Office hadn't changed much, since my last visit. I discovered a small mirror that hadn't been there the last time. I casually walked to the mirror and picked it up. First, it only reflected me, but then my reflection vanished, and I saw my father. He was chained up in a cell. It broke my heart to see him like this, especially because he wasn't alone. With him, there was a dementor. Although I couldn't hear anything, I knew that he was screaming in pain._

_"What does this mirror do, Professor?" I asked, while turning around. I was right, Dumbledore had suddenly appeared behind me. _

_"The mirrors in this house are all extraordinary. They all see everything and yet no mirror shows the same as the others. But this little mirror that you're holding in your hand, will show you those who are thinking about you in this precise instant."_

_This meant that my father was thinking of me. My father tried to endure this by thinking about me... Tears showed up at the corner of my eyes, but I instantly wiped them away. The picture changed again and suddenly I saw the Slytherin girl that I had helped, sitting in the library. She was reading a book. As I looked closer I was able to read my name in it._

_ "What is that, Professor?" I looked questioningly at Dumbledore._

_ "This book is a collection of family trees and their histories and it seems that you have caught her interest..." Dumbledore went over to his desk and sat down. _

_The image disappeared and suddenly I saw this boy. What was his name again? Heath? Henry? No, Harry... exactly, his name was Harry! Sadly, I was really bad with names. Why was he thinking about me? Well never mind... I put the mirror down and followed Dumbledore to his desk._

_ "You can go." Surprised, I looked at him. But then I caught myself and walked to the exit. I was not about to question his generosity._

_ "Oh, and Alice ... next time try to keep your anger under control. I know that the young Draco Malfoy may not be the easiest company, but it would be bad if something happened to him.''_

Mary:

A wing flapping and a faint clacking awakened me. Sleepily I opened my eyes and saw my owl beside me. I quickly ripped the letter from her beak and read it.

Mary

The answer is quite difficult and at the same time very simple. A letter is not the right way to discuss this, so I am looking forward to seeing you at Christmas. All you need to know for now is that he's not a good person. Listen well Mary, do not mention his name to anyone, it will only cause you trouble.

In love

Grandma

My mouth hung open as I sat on my bed, staring at this letter. My brain was still trying to process this new piece of information. I absolutely needed to talk with Grandma at Christmas! Could it be that I was indeed related to this person? Grandma was already old, maybe she had confused something. But as I was telling this to myself, I knew that I was wrong. My grandmother wasn't senile, she still had all her brain cells. I didn't know what to make of this, but I decided that she was right. I wouldn't mention it to anyone.

_Alice:_

_After my talk with Professor Dumbledore I had followed his advice. I was able to stay out of trouble for the first half of the year. Mainly without incident. There had been a confrontation with a troll on Halloween. I had followed Hermione to one of the bathrooms, after Ron had made a mean comment about her. I comforted her for a while and because of her cries I hadn't heard him. Too late did I realize that a troll entered the bathroom. With a big swing he destroyed the stalls and my head almost with it. Lucky for us, that Harry and Ron showed up to help us beat the troll. It took the four of us to put him down. _

_After everything went down, Dumbledore and some of the teachers came running in. Minerva immediately threw her arms around me and checked to see if I was alright. She was relieved to see that me and the others were fine. Then her relief faded and made space for another emotion. She scolded the boys for not going straight to their dormitories with the rest of their house, but instead putting themselves in grave danger. Much to everyone's surprise, Hermione lied that she went looking for the troll, as she thought she could handle him. She claimed that the boys and me were looking for her, and she would most likely be dead if we had failed to rescue her. During her explanation, Harry and Ron gave each other meaningful looks after looking at Professor Snape's leg. Again, I had missed something important. Although he was now hiding it, I was able to smell a lot of blood coming from it. A wound like that must hurt and didn't just happen like that. I realized that I had been so focused on staying out of trouble, that I had shut myself off to what was going on. So, like every curious person, I asked the trio what was going on, the second we got back to the dormitory. _

_They told me a story about how they had met a three-headed dog while hiding from Filch and apparently the dog had protected a trapdoor. They didn't know what it was underneath but they were pretty sure that Professor Snape wanted it. I didn't know what to make of it. I agreed to help them find the answers they were looking for and suggested that we should speak to Hagrid. If anyone knew anything about a three-headed dog, it would be him. For as long as I could remember, Hagrid loved all kind of animals and knew almost everything about them._

_Harry wanted to ask Hagrid straight away, but Hermione reminded him about the impending start of the Quidditch season. Up to this point, I had totally forgotten that Harry was part of the Gryffindor-team. Minerva had recruited him in the first week of school, after she had seen him catch a Remembrall while flying for the very first time. Of course, this had been the result of another one of Draco's shabby tricks. Joke's on him though, he practically served Harry the position of Seeker on a silver tablet. _

Mary:

My very first Quidditch-match. I didn't know what to expect. The stands were tall and there was a big empty field in the middle. The players were flying on their broomsticks, trying to catch the different balls. Although, the rules had been explained to me, I didn't quite get them. But at this point, that didn't matter, because I had fallen in love with this game already.

,,Here, I brought you some fries.'' I turned my head to the left, where Theo, had just shown up. And indeed, he was holding out a hand with fries in it.

,,Took you quite a while, did you get lost on your way?'', I asked while taking the fries. He shrugged with his shoulders and then gave me a little smile.

,,I met a friend.''

Surprised, I lifted my eyebrows. A friend? I looked back to the match, but somehow I couldn't concentrate on it. Theo didn't have any friends. He had acquaintances. It wasn't like no one wanted to be his friend, rather the opposite. Theo was nice, but distant to our fellow Slytherins. He talked to others and I had seen him joking around with Blaise Zabini once or twice, but to call them friends? And the occasional talks he had with Malfoy, didn't make them friends. It had been hard for me too. At the beginning we only talked form time to time, but it turned out that we had things in common, so over time, we started to study and hang out together. But even like this, I couldn't tell if we were really friends or not.

,,You don't have any friends.'' My lips formed my thoughts.

,,What?''

Shocked I turned my head back to him. He was staring at me. Shit, did I say that aloud? Upon seeing my face, he started to laugh.

,,I am so sorry. I didn't mean it like that.''

,,Oh you totally did, but it's okay. I get it. And you're almost right. I'm not really socializing with most Slytherins, because I'm not really a fan of their ethics.''

That was true, in contrary to me and basically every Slytherin Student here, Theo didn't in any way decorate his face with the colours of our House. I couldn't blame him. He was right. Most Slytherins were very set in their ways and those weren't very nice or open. They made me feel their hostility often enough. And just like that, I felt a bit disgusted at the green and silver colour in my face. Just an hour ago I had asked Theo to draw some things on it, because I had been so excited about my first quidditch match. Now I just wanted to wipe it off my face.

''But I have friends, you know.''

,,Like the Gryffindor girl?'' Theo quickly looked around, to make sure that no one had heard me, before giving me a sheepish smile.

,,Yeah, like Alice, though I have to say, I'm surprised you know about her.''

,,Well, I am a smart girl.'', I said in a sweet tone.

,,Yeah, that's one of the reasons we're friends.'' I started to blush. He considered us friends. Warmth spread in my stomach. He was the first person here, who actually called me a friend and made me feel like I belonged here. I was happy to be his friend. The last couple of months had felt really lonely. I wasn't able to see the friends I've had before finding out that I was a wizard. The separation had been hard and being in Slytherin didn't help.

,,So, what's the story with you and Alice?'' I asked so that my mind would concentrate on something else than my previous friendships.

,,She's my oldest and best friend.'' His response was a bit short, I had expected more, so I dug a bit deeper.

,,So how is it with her being in Gryffindor and you in Slytherin? It must be hard, right?''

,,We manage.'' So, he really didn't want to talk about it. But why? Did they have a fight? Or was it something else? Suddenly I realized that we were still surrounded by fellow Slytherins and that maybe this wasn't the right time or place to talk about his friendship with Alice.

,,Hey now, don't make such a face, we'll talk about it some other time, for now let's stay focused on the match.'', he said with a smile. I hadn't noticed that my face looked a bit grim. I gave him a small smile and turned back to the game while putting a fry in my mouth.

_Alice:_

_I could hear the crowd cheering, from afar. I had the slightest amount of a bad conscience for missing Harry's very first match, but I couldn't bring myself to go watch it. Not because I didn't care about it, or because I didn't want to support Harry. My problem was the noise. The crowd was loud, and my ears couldn't take it. Having an incredibly sensitive and good hearing had advantages and disadvantages. I was quite far away from the stadium and yet, it sounded like the people were talking only a couple of feet away from me. At one point, Theo had come to me, to give me a little company. I had to smile, because he had exactly known where to find me. We talked for a bit, before he went back, because the Slytherin girl was waiting for him. After he left, I laid down on the grass and solely focused on the sounds around me. Listening to the nature here on the grounds of Hogwarts was always interesting, because you never knew what you would hear next. I got lost in the nature and after a while I decided to focus on the match again. In a matter of seconds everything was quiet and then there was a roaring cheer for Gryffindor. We won, Harry had caught the snitch. I was happy and smirked._

_Only a couple of minutes later, I met Harry and the other two, accompanied by Hagrid. The half-giant invited us to his hut and we gladly accepted. Of course, Ron immediately told me what had happened. Professor Snape put a hurling hex on Harry's broomstick and Hermione saved him by putting Snape's coat on fire and in the end, Harry had caught the snitch with his mouth. I congratulated Harry at which point he asked where I had been, because he hadn't seen me anywhere. I apologized and said that I had overslept. Harry seemed a bit disappointed but then Hermione changed the subject to a more important one. The search for a reason as to why Snape had put a spell on Harry's broom. To which Hagrid said that this was ridiculous, because Snape wouldn't do something like that. Harry told him about Snape being bitten by the dog. Hagrid who was surprised by that statement, admitted, that Fluffy belonged to him. And that the dog was guarding something did not concern us, as it was a secret known only to Dumbledore and a man named Nicolas Flamel. Of course, he immediately regretted telling us that and threw us out._

_"Alice!" I looked up and realized that I had been lost in my thoughts while watching the snow fall down. Hermione came up to me in quick steps._

_"Oh, hello Hermione, are you ready to spend Christmas with your parents?" _

_Because of Christmas, most of the students went home, which meant that the school would be as good as empty. _

_"Yes, I'm really looking forward to see my family again. Are you going home too over Christmas? ", She asked me excited._

_ "I'm already home. But maybe I'll be able to see my father." _

_"I'm sure he will be glad to see you. And if you get bored, Harry and Ron will both stay here too. I'll see you after the holidays!" Hermione waved me goodbye and went away._

_I sighed and then made my way in the direction from which I heard Harry and Ron's voices. I wasn't going to see my father. I couldn't. But a girl could dream, right?_

Mary:

I sat in front of the cozy fireplace of my grandmother, staring into the flames. An hour ago I arrived here and waited for my Grandma with Pa to come home.

Ever since they left, I tried to have a dialogue in my brain. I wanted to talk with my family about my ancestry. As the door clicked open, I straightened up and looked at my family come in.

Father had gotten more wrinkles than he already used to have, and he looked pretty exhausted. When my father saw me, the exhaustion fell completely away from him and he walked with long strides and with a happy smile to me, spread his arms and pulled me in a hug.

"My Mary! My little one, I am glad to be able to take you in my arms again.'' He murmured in my ear.

"I'm glad to see you again Pa!" I said softly, and pressed him to me.

"Well my girl. How's it going at school?" Asked Grandma and dropped into the rocking chair. I didn't think that she would ask me that question.

"Well. It is difficult. I landed in the wrong house. A Muggle as I am would have fit into Hufflepuff, not in Slytherin." I hissed furiously and looked into the flames.

"So you're in Slytherin." My father noticed and looked at me thoughtfully. ''I'm sure it can't be that bad. There's nice people everywhere, I mean look at you! You're a kind girl, so others must be nice too.''

I didn't want to contradict my dad, by telling him that most people there didn't seem nice. Then I thought about Theo, he had been nice to me and he was friends with Alice. So maybe with time I would meet more nice people.

''Come now my boy, how about you bring your mother and daughter some warm chocolate milk while we sit down.'' My grandma said while giving my dad a smile. Once alone she gave me the sign to go over to her. So I did. ''Listen my sweet girl. You need to stop looking into this other boy. It's dangerous.''

''I don't understand grandma. Who was he?'' I asked worried.

''He's the one wo killed my father and my grandparents.'' Shocked, I leaned back. I had never known that people of our family had been murdered. The thought scared me.

''B-but why? I mean, what…''

''I can't give you all the answers. But I will explain what I can. Before my father met my mother, he had been with another woman. My father scarcely talked about this time, all he ever said was that it had felt like a bad fever dream. Sometimes my parents argued about it, and that is when I found out, that he had a son with this woman. That boy, my half-brother, is Tom Riddle. So yes, you are related to him, but only barely.''

Tom Riddle had killed his own father and grandparents? How could someone do that. This was horrifying.

''Grandma… where is he now? Can he still hurt us?''

''You are still a bit young to hear about everything that has happened, but what you do need to know is that people who associated with him are bad people who did terrible things. He is gone now, but some of those other people are still out there, which is why you need to be careful of who you let around you.''

_Alice:_

_''Harry! Alice! Come down quickly!" I heard Ron call from the common room and ran out of the dorm. _

_Below I saw Ron stand near the Christmas tree. All the Gryffindors who stayed here over Christmas had helped to decorate the tree. On the floor next to Ron were many gifts. _

_The door from the boys' dormitory opened and Harry came running out of it. His eyes widened when he saw all the presents. _

_"You're pretty slow Harry!" I shouted at him, laughing and jumped down the stairs to Ron. He wore a horrible homemade sweater. _

_"There is one for you too, Harry!" Ron held another sweater in the air, which was just as awful._

_ I walked slowly around the tree and looked at the gifts. I spotted one with Harry's name on it and picked it up. I finished my round and discovered another gift, but this time my name was on it. I picked it up and went back to the boys. _

_"This one's for you Harry." I gave him his gift and turned my attention to my own. I opened it and found a picture of me as a child with my father. I sat on a swing and he pushed me. I had to smile and hold back the tears. _

_"The picture is sweet." Ron was suddenly beside me._

_ "And? How does it look?" We both turned to Harry and we only saw his head. _

_"H-Harry..." Ron stuttered. _

_"What?" Harry looked down and realized that he, or rather his body had dissolved. _

_"What the..." Harry took off his coat again. _

_They read the letter which came with it and then put the cloak away for now. Harry took a small blue box out of his pocket and held it out to me. _

_"What's that?" I asked him curiously. _

_"Well, I've noticed that you're often alone and I thought that maybe you'd appreciate a gift." He looked into my eyes and smiled sweetly. _

_I took the little box and opened it. In it there was a chain with a beautiful pendant. _

_"Thank you, Harry... it's beautiful!"_

_He took the chain and put it around my neck. That was the first gift that a friend had ever given to me. Thus, this was the most beautiful Christmas I had in years, unfortunately, the holidays were over far too quickly and the school began again._

Mary:

Sighing, I packed my suitcase and placed it in front of the fireplace.

"So. See you again in the summer." I muttered, hugged my father and gave Grandma a kiss. I shot the bought flea powder bought in the fireplace and shouted: "Hogwarts!"

I took shape in the office of Professor Snape.

"Miss Riddle good to see you." Snape greeted me.

"Thanks," I mumbled, confused and went on to the Slytherin common room. As usual nobody noticed me and I was honestly happy.

After two weeks, the Quidditch season finally began and for Slytherin it started rather badly. Thanks to Potter. For me, this was actually an advantage, because Malfoy's clique was now fixed on Potter and left me alone.

At the end of the year Dumbledore announced the best house. Slytherin.

"I still have to award some more points. 50 to Mary Riddle who has written the best exam this year. Congratulations."

My house looked at me dumbfounded. Then after a minute of silence they suddenly broke into applause. Some congratulated me, while others just kept quiet. Nott, Daphne and Blaise came to me.

"Cool Mary. Thanks to you we got more points." Daphne did indeed seem happy.

"Eh..." I mumbled, frowning.

"I know we were totally shit to you. Will you forgive us?" A hopeful smile spread across her face.

I was skeptical. "Maybe after the summer holidays. Give me some time!"

She nodded understandingly and sat down next to me.

"Quiet! I must distribute a few more points. Alice Tepes, you get 100 points for saving the young Malfoy... " The rest was drowned because of the laughter of the Gryffindors. I turned my gaze to Malfoy. He was as red as a tomato... maybe even redder. And that's how Gryffindor won the House cup.

_Alice:_

_I was quite surprised to hear that I got points because I had saved the life of this imbecile. Mainly because I was the reason that he had nearly died. Dumbledore gave out some more points to Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville, and just like that we had won. _

_After I left the Great Hall, I heard him coming even before he was in front of me. _

_"Hey, you monster!" Malfoy grabbed my arm and turned me around to face him. _

_"Don't believe that anything has changed, just because you apparently saved me!" He was still red with anger. _

_"That wasn't apparently. As a matter of fact, I saved your life. And of course, nothing really changes Malfoy, after all, I'm responsible for what happened. I just had the grace to not really let you die, because even if you are a repulsive boy and magician, you did not deserve to die. I'm sure that one day you'll do the right thing. Until then, I'll have to put up with you as you are, somehow I get the feeling that this is going to be quite entertaining." I tore myself away and left him standing there silently._

_ As __I entered the Gryffindor room I saw how most of the students said goodbye to each other. All except Harry looked kind of glad that they could go back home._

_ "Are you ready, Harry?" _

_He looked at me and made me a place on the couch. "I'll never be ready to go there." He said, shaking his head. _

_I let myself down on the couch next to him and looked at the fire. "You could just stay here, you know that, right?"_

_"I can't stay... Those people raised me." He whispered sadly. _

_"Hey, don't be sad, the holidays are 2 months long, and then you're back here. If it cheers you up, I promise that I'll write you every day.'' _

_Harry smiled at that and so we made the promise to write each other. Later that night, as I was sitting in my empty bedroom I got a letter from the ministry. It was informing me of my visitation rights with my father. Defeated by the oppressing silence that felt like a stranger to me now, after having so many people around me the whole year, I laid down on my bed and hoped that the summer would go by as fast as possible.  
_


	3. Troubles

Mary:

"It's a strange feeling to go back to Hogwarts." I said, looking at Astoria.

During the holidays, we had become quite good friends and some others too had grown on me. We fused together into real friends.

''Why do you think that Mary?" Blaise wondered.

"Well... two months without school and learning. It's just weird." I shrugged.

I was smiling. It was a great feeling to know that someone was by your side. In every situation. Suddenly the compartment door opened and, who would have thought, Malfoy stood in it with his gorillas. I stood up and looked at him defiantly.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Blaise asked scathingly.

I looked at him in astonishment. The idiot opened his mouth, closed it again and repeated this several times. After what felt like minutes, he stopped that movement, turned around and disappeared.

"Eh... thanks Blaise." I said, still a bit perplexed. Blaise was Malfoy's best friend.

"You're welcome." He waved his hand and smiled at me.

"Don't worry he's only a stupid idiot." now Nott spoke up.

The Greengrass sisters nodded reaffirming. It seemed like my friends were willing to go against the high and mighty purebloods for me.

_Alice:_

_During the holidays, I wrote to all my friends and got an answer from all of them, except from Harry, but this didn't surprise me. To be honest I wondered whether his family would let him come back. I'd rather thought that they would put bars on his window. But I was wrong, since he had flown into the Willow yesterday. I almost fell from the chair, laughing, when Harry explained what had happened. Hermione had lectured them, but I was fairly impressed that this aggressive tree hadn't murdered them._

_Today was our first official day of school this year and we had a new teacher. Some guy who had written a book. I couldn't remember his name though... I came into the classroom and sat down next to Neville. I offered him a friendly smile, which he returned. _

_When the classroom was full the Professor entered the room. He began to talk about himself and how brilliant he was. Sadly, all the girls seemed to drool. Slowly I looked around the room and yes I was right, all stared at him, except Mary. Like me she was looking around the room and our eyes met. We both slowly and simultaneously shook our heads before we went back to pay attention to the lesson. This idiotic teacher was about to free some pixies! I stood up and was about to say something to stop him when he actually released them. As I expected, they immediately flew from the cage and began to create chaos. _

_And what did the teacher do? He told Harry, Ron and Hermione, that they should catch the pixies before he ran away. All the others were running out of the classroom. The 3 were just looking for a solution, while I made a spell that significantly slowed the pixies._

_"Wow, that was great." Ron said. _

_I shrugged my shoulders slightly and we started to collect the pixies. At the end I took down Neville, who had been suspended to the chandelier. After we had captured all the pixies and I made sure that Neville was fine, we parted ways and I went down to the lake. _

_On my way I met Theo, my best friend since I was a child and no, not even the Sorting hat changed that. I hadn't really encountered him in my first year here and I really had missed talking to him, so we went down to the lake together. Only a couple of hours later we returned to the castle and after we parted, I met my friends._

Mary:

What a stupid teacher. And my fellow students swarmed for him, although he had made this pixie action.

"Oh this Lockhart is so cooool!" Enthused Astoria and her sister agreed.

The boys and I looked at each other with uncomprehending faces. The day passed uneventfully until after dinner. My house was just on the way to the dungeons, when we halted in front of a wall, in front of which stood the Potter clique.

On the wall was written in blood: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Mudbloods beware."

"Mudbloods beware. Good luck Granger! "Malfoy smiled dirty and his eyes also fell on me, but he kept his mouth shut.

A terrifying feeling spread in my stomach. I had heard about the monster on the inside. It fossilized or in the worst case it killed Muggle-born.

"The Heir of Slytherin ?!" Nott whispered to me. "Who's that?"

... I had a vague idea.

_Alice:_

_Blood ... I could smell it. Filch's cat had been petrified and someone had written on the wall with some blood. But that was already a little while ago, and the blood that I smelled was fresh._

_I opened my eyes and instantly got used to the darkness. It was about two o'clock in the morning and everyone else was asleep. I stood up and pulled my school coat on over my pyjama. The smell of blood was stronger, and made me hurry even more. With my vampire speed, I followed the smell and two minutes later I stood before Ginny, who had just smeared some blood on a wall. _

_"Ginny!" I turned her around and shook her. "Ginny!" Her eyes stared through me. _

_Probably she was somehow hypnotized. Further down the hall, I heard a hiss and crawl. The strange thing was, the sound came from inside the wall, and it came closer. Fast. Whatever it was, we shouldn't stay here to find out. I threw Ginny over my shoulder and ran. Fear spread through me while I ran away from this thing. _

_Seconds seemed like hours to me and I felt so many terrible emotions. This thing followed me through the walls, I could hear every hiss and every move. When I finally arrived at the dorm, I was totally relieved and all the terrible feelings disappeared. _

_I felt safe and put Ginny down on the ground again. She still stood motionless, so I decided to help her. I looked into her eyes and broke into her head. I could see everything, her feelings, her memories, her hopes and much more. That was one of the reasons why I didn't want to break in the mind of people. In their head I could see everything and that was just too personal. Currently in Ginny's head everything was covered by a white veil. I tore the veil apart and came back out of her head. She blinked a few times and then looked at me. _

_"Alice? How did I... Oh, Alice! It was not me! Please believe me, I did not mean to..." She slowly began to cry. _

_"Hey, it's all right. I know that you did not want that. Everything will be fine, it's over..." I took Ginny in my arms and comforted her. _

_"Can I sleep with you tonight? I don't want to be alone." She sniffed. _

_"Sure you can... Come on, we should go to sleep." I wiped her tears away and we went back to my bed. _

_30 minutes later I laid tired in my bed. Ginny had fallen asleep immediately, but I was not given this happiness and so I was awake the rest of the night in my bed thinking about this monster._

Mary:

"Killing, tear, blood!"

I stopped abruptly. What was that voice? I turned around, but no one was there! What was happening here?

"Do you hear that voice as well?" Asked a voice behind me. Startled, I whirled around and saw Potter's face.

"Potter? Eh ... yes, I think so."

Relief spread across his face. "Well then I'm not crazy!"

I smiled a forced smile. "Unless we both are!" With this sentence, I rushed off to the girls bathroom counter.

When I walked Myrtles cabin, I saw a little brown book. Intrigued, I walked up to the Fund and picked it up. On the cover was in golden letters: "The Diary of Tom Marvolo Riddle!"

My mouth fell open and I opened the book. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. I took out my ink and sat down on the floor. Maybe it became invisible because of some magic. I smeared the ink on the pages. She got absorbed!

"What?" I mumbled, confused.

I picked up my pen and wrote: "Hello my name is Mary Riddle."

The writing was absorbed slowly and slowly, another sentence was visible. "Mary Riddle! I am pleased to make your acquaintance even though I have to admit that It surprises me, to meet a Riddle."

Too bad for him. I closed the book again. I had no desire to go too deep in the past. I threw the book back in the cabin and left the place.

_Alice:_

_The next day another student was found petrified. This thing had probably taken him instead of me and Ginny. After I had gotten up I walked a bit through the school, with no real goal. Until I met Theo and I told him what had happened the night before. I knew that I could trust him and maybe he knew something. Sadly, that wasn't the case. Still it was really reassuring to know that he believed me. We continued to talk, until Aunt Minerva interrupted us._

_"Alice, could you please come over here..."_

_I turned to Minerva and followed her. When we walked into her office I sat down on the chair in front of her desk. _

_"You've probably heard what happened ... For security reasons, I do not want you travelling around alone, and certainly not in the evening. Moreover, Draco Malfoy has expressed a desire to spend this year's Christmas at Hogwarts. I want you to keep an eye on him. A few teachers worry. There could be a scandal with Lucius, if Malfoy gets petrified. Professor Lockhart and Professor Snape have established a dueling club, which takes place right in this moment. I do not think much of Lockhart but Professor Snape could really teach you something. If you understand everything, you can go."_

_I looked at her motionless for a couple of seconds, and then I left the office. I went down the hallway, when suddenly a student ran out of a large room. In the hall a lot of students were gathered together with Snape and Lockhart. Harry and Draco stood on a long table and everyone stared at Harry. He jumped off the table and hurried out of the room, followed by Ron and Hermione. I ran after them, and we walked together to Gryffindor Tower. _

_"What was that Harry?" Ron asked frightened._

_"What do you mean? I only told the snake that it should leave him alone." Harry said, confused. _

_''It didn't sound like you were stopping it.'' Ron said. _

_''I don't know what you are talking about! You heard what I said didn't you?'' _

_"If you spoke with a snake then you spoke Parseltongue... Harry, this is not normal. Few Wizards are able to do that. Salazar Slytherin was a Parseltongue." _

_Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at me in surprise. _

_"She's right, Harry ... I was not quite sure, but now I am. You are the heir of Slytherin. " Hermione said._

Mary:

I had no idea why everyone was staring so startled at Harry. He had only tried to keep this snake away from the boy! Because of this stupid and really idiotic action of Malfoy. The creature turned to me.

"Do what he says and leave the boy alone. I mean what do you want from him anyway? "I asked the snake.

Suddenly all heads turned to me. What? Did I have something on my face? The Slytherins looked at me admiringly, the rest more anxious. A little confused I noticed that Professor Snape let the snake disappear and that Harry ran out of the room. My tutor came up to me.

"Follow me Miss Riddle." I could not read his expression but I had a bad feeling…

Only when we had arrived in his office did he start to speak.

"So you speak Parseltongue!", He noted. I looked confused.

"Not that I know of. No wait. To speak with snakes is Parseltongue. Oh. "Now I smiled slightly. "In that case, yes. I can understand Parseltongue."

"Don't you wonder why you can speak Parseltongue as a Muggle-born?"

I stared at him.

"At the beginning I did, then I've researched my family. And I found the answer." I said softly.

He nodded knowingly. "Yes, in that case you might not need to worry about the monster. The wizarding family of which you come from is directly related to Salazar Slytherin. One might think that you are the heir of Slytherin."

Was it weird that it did not surprise me particularly? I kind of thought the same

"You do not look surprised, how come Mary?" He asked warily.

"Get that idea out of your head, Professor. I've got nothing to do with it. "I said clearly and turned to go.

"I am aware of this fact Miss Riddle. But your name triggers a discomfort by certain professors, do you understand me?" I nodded and left the dim lit room.

_Alice:_

_As time passed, we came to the conclusion that maybe Malfoy knew something about the Person who opened the Chamber fifty years ago. So, I told them that Malfoy planned to stay in Hogwarts over the Christmas Holidays. Hermione prepared everything for the Polyjuice Potion and on Christmas we met in the Great Hall to talk about our plan. _

_''__I planned everything. The only thing you'll need to do is to get a hair from the People you want to change into.'' Hermione explained. _

_''__I wish you guys good luck. I'll keep an eye on Malfoy until you meet him, then I'll make sure that no one interferes.'' _

_Hermione nodded approvingly. Ron and Harry didn't seem so sure. _

_''__Do you really think this will work?'', Harry asked. _

_Hermione sighed and explained again how her plan was flawless and that everything would work as long as they didn't screw up._

_On the same afternoon while the others were getting prepared I stayed close to Malfoys side, while at the same time having enough distance between the two of us. I wanted to just linger in the shadows as long as the others were preparing themselves but sadly, faith was against me. I saw the real Gorillas coming in Malfoy's direction, followed by Harry and Ron. So they were still trying to get the Hair? Dammit… I got away from the wall and approached Malfoy. _

_''__I was looking for you.'' I said, while taking his arm and pulling him with me around a corner and in a classroom. _

_It took him a couple of seconds to realize what had happened. He threw me a dirty look and broke free of my hold. _

_''__What do you want?'' He asked angrily._

_I raised an eyebrow. ''Did you stand up with the wrong foot? Calm down…''_

_He still seemed unhappy but at least he had calmed down. ''So. What do you want?''_

_Right… I had no idea. I played with my fingers behind my back nervously. I hadn't thought that far ahead. Shit. _

_''__I-uh… ''_

_I could see that he was getting confused and annoyed. He turned around and wanted to get out of the room, but I couldn't let him leave now. I could still hear the Gorillas in the hallway searching for Malfoy. What were Harry and Ron doing? I reached forward and pulled Malfoy back. _

_He turned back to me, angrier than before and was about to say something, when a thought crossed my mind. I pulled him to me and kissed him… the first couple of seconds we were just standing against each other, not moving. But then again, this wouldn't stop him for long, so I started to move my lips and suddenly he returned the kiss. Not with passion, but with anger and frustration. _

_There were probably a couple of things wrong in his life right now, for him to react in that way. Crazy enough, I didn't even notice the time passing as I was kissing him like that and it didn't bother me. I actually liked it… this was after all my first kiss and every girl always made some drama about it and here I was. Giving it away to someone I didn't even especially like and I was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Still, somehow this fact didn't make us stop, but the opening door followed by Harry's voice did._

_''__Alice we-''_

_I immediately let go of Malfoy and took a step back but it was too late. Harry already looked at me as if I just had said that the Dursleys were the nicest people on earth._

_Silence fell upon us and as I glanced to Malfoy I could see that he had mixed feelings about all of this. Not that he would like me or anything, but he seemed rather angry that this 'thing' ended so abruptly._

_I cleared my throat and looked at Harry. His brain seemed to work again, then he blinked a couple of times before he finally broke the silence._

_''__Eh, yes. I just wanted to say, that we were ready.'' He looked from me the Malfoy and back again. ''I'm just gonna wait in the Hallway.'' And with that he disappeared as fast as he had appeared. _

_Since I couldn't find anything halfway smart to say I just walked to the door but before I opened it, I turned around to Malfoy, who looked at me with some kind of Storm in his eyes. _

_''__This doesn't need to leave this room…'' Somehow this didn't really sound right to me, so I added something. ''Merry Christmas, Malfoy.'' _

_I left the room and almost walked into Harry who still seemed shocked. We hurried down the Hallway together, with him occasionally looking at me. Only when we had almost reached the place, where the other two were, did he stop. _

_''__What happened back there?''_

_''__I had to stop him from leaving the room, because you were taking so long with the two Gorillas and they were searching him.''_

_''__So you kissed him?!''_

_''__I was panicking, okay? I didn't know what to do and then this idea suddenly came to me.''_

_He made a face as if he was going to vomit. ''I'm never going to get that picture out of my head.''_

_I rolled my eyes. ''Yeah. I know what you mean.''_

_''__Do you want a bonbon? Or maybe you should wash your mouth.'' He said while laughing._

_''__You're an idiot!'' I responded but I couldn't stop myself from laughing too. _

_We entered the room and started phase two of Hermione's plan. While the others were transforming themselves, I went to see if Crabbe and Goyle, I had finally remembered their names, were still sleeping like little babies. After I had made sure of the fact that they would be out for another hour I went to the Gryffindor common Room and sat down on a couch. I was kind of exhausted, so I laid down and closed my eyes. I only wanted to rest for a couple of minutes._

_"Alice ... Alice ... Alice !" _

_Terrified I opened my eyes. I sat sweating on the sofa in the common room. Ginny looked at me anxiously._

_"W-What happened?" I took a deep breath. _

_"I-I don't know ... I was looking for Ron, w-when you suddenly started to moan and twitch. Then you cried and punched around you ..." Ginny stroked hair behind her ear. _

_"Thank you for waking me." I could not remember anything of this dream. Then I remembered something Ginny had said. _

_"Ron is out with Harry and Hermione." I didn't really want to lie to Ginny but how could I tell her that they had drunk a Polyjuice Potion and were probably still talking with Malfoy right now. Malfoy… my memories came rushing right back. I fell back on the couch. Now I wished that I could sleep again._

Mary:

On the way to the common room I met a lonely Malfoy. Actually, a good opportunity to ask him what was going on with him lately. Confidently I walked up to him and turned him to face me.

"Riddle, what do you want?" He asked, somewhat absent.

"I want to know what's wrong with you. Lately you behave ... well ... weirdly." I said, looking at him questioningly. He avoided my gaze.

"Malfoy?!"

He did not respond. Ok, then we would walk in silence. Suddenly there were two clever looking Crabbe and Goyle, with glasses, coming around the corner. I furrowed my brow sceptically.

"Since when do you wear glasses, Goyle?"

Goyle looked at me slightly scared and hurriedly pulled the thing away.

"To read," he grumbled.

"You can read?" Malfoy interjected. ''First her and now you, what's wrong today? Why is everyone so weird.''

He starred into the distance while talking. Did he mean me when he said 'her'? Somehow it didn't seem like it, but then who did he mean? Goyle was suddenly very pale. Did he know anything? Oh well, it wasn't my problem.

"Well guys, I'm leaving."

_Alice:_

_Harry and Ron ran into the hospital wing and rushed over to where I was standing. I had already arrived a few minutes earlier and yet I still could not believe what I saw before me. Hermione lay with outstretched hand in front of us on a sickbed. She was as rigid as a rock and the look in her eyes seemed dead. Next to her on the bedside table was a mirror._

_Some time ago we found out that Malfoy had not opened the Chamber and now? Now Hermione was petrified. _

_"We need to save her, guys ..." I said in a serious tone._

_"I already know how ..." Harry said. "We have to follow the spiders ..." Harry mumbled half understandable. _

_"What did you say?" Ron asked._

_"I'm not quite sure yet, but I have a guess... Ron, we need to see Hagrid. Alice, please watch out for Hermione, until we are back!" Harry ran out of the room and Ron followed him. _

_I stayed at Hermione's side and looked at the mirror. I took it in my hand and lifted it up. The mirror had a small green glow when I held it to the light. How come? _

_'__The mirrors in this house are all something special. They see everything and the same and yet no mirror shows the same as another. ' Dumbledore's voice went through my head. _

_Maybe ... I tried to remember the spell that we learned two weeks ago. When he came to my mind again, I took out my wand and kept it ready. _

_"Levantia." I enchanted the mirror and he played everything from what he had seen in the last 5 hours. _

_A Basilisk ... it was a basilisk. How did he get through the school, without anyone seeing him? My gaze drifted to Hermione and I discovered a piece of paper in her hand. I put the mirror down and took the paper from her hand. Hermione had also found out that it was a basilisk... It was a page about a basilisk and at the bottom was a note. Tubes. Of course! The basilisk wandered through the pipes! I absolutely had to find Harry and Ron. _

_"Sorry Hermione but I have to leave you for a short while to save the two idiots ..."_

Mary:

A number of students had been petrified. The unrest of the teachers was close enough to touch, and finally Dumbledore called me in his office.

"Ah, Miss Riddle, Please sit down." Inwardly sighing I dropped into the chair.

"Professor, I know what you want to ask me. The answer is no, although I am probably the heir of Slytherin, I'm not to blame for these incidents!" I wanted that to be clear. He pierced me with his Dumbledore-gaze.

"Mary, do you have to tell me anything? Is something on your mind?"

I thought about his question. I noticed the thing with Voldemort and easily all the problems of the first year, the diary ...

"No, there's nothing professor." I answered him. He still looked at me with his typical look.

"Was that all? Can I go?"

The Headmaster nodded and I disappeared through the magnificent door. Slowly it scared me to bear the name Riddle! Annoyed, I entered the common room and sat down with my friends.

"What's going on Beautiful?", I was greeted by Blaise.

"The teachers think that I am the terror of the whole school!" I said thoughtlessly.

"Why?", Wondered Astoria stunned.

"Well because of my name." I mumbled on. When I realized what I had said, I slapped my hand on my mouth internaly.

"What's wrong with your name?"

My friends all looked at me curiously. Yes, now I was doomed.

"Her name. Riddle is the name of the Dark Lord." That voice.

I turned around and looked at the serious face of Malfoy.

"What do you mean by that? Don't lie Draco." Hissed Nott.

"Nott, let me tell you what. I never lie in such matters!" Said Malfoy in return.

Now Blaise turned to me. "He's telling the truth?"

I looked at my friends, one after another. Finally, I nodded. "Yes, he is."

The mouths flew open and huge eyes staring at me.

"Are you satisfied now Malfoy?" I hissed, turned around and took the road to the Astronomy Tower.

Alice:

_Ron and Harry looked totally bewildered, as I found them. We were out by the willow who struck constantly around and a car just flew away. Ron muttered paranoid of spiders and Harry looked startled but also thoughtful. _

_"I have it! I have the solution! "I cried. Both looked to me with questioning eyes. _

_"The monster! It's a basilisk! That's why Harry could hear him." I explained quickly. _

_It was quiet a little while until Ron broke the silence. "How can he just simply travel through the school without getting seen? He has to be huge..."_

_"He travels through the pipes ... "I said. _

_Now Harry stood up and began to speak. "We have to stop him and tell someone!" _

_I thought for a moment and tried to say something, but Ron was quicker. _

_"First the spiders and now a basilisk?! Do you want to kill me?!" Ron was at the edge of hyperventilating. _

_"No, we clearly don't want that... Harry we will do all of that tomorrow. Ron won't make it otherwise. In addition, we still have to decide which teacher we involve... I would say Mi-"_

_"Lockhart, he has taken on the subject..."_

_"Are you serious, Harry? This guy can't do anything."_

_"But he has written all his adventures in books... something must be true about what he says." Harry said firmly. He helped Ron to his feet and pulled him with him._

_"Yes, the something!" I called after him, but he just kept going. _

_"What something?"_

_Surprised, I turned around and saw a boy standing way too close to the tree. _

_"Watch out!"_

_I couldn't even make a step towards him, when he was already hit by a tree branch and then got thrown through the area on the branch. _

_"I hate this day." I hissed and quickly approached the tree. In addition, I still avoided the branches, who were trying to crush me. Damned willow! _

_I waited until the branch with the boy flew past me again and then jumped on top of it. A strong draft hit my face and the tree whipped us around. The boy did not stop screaming and slowly this started to annoy me. _

_With difficulty I climbed along the branch to him. Thousand small leaves and branches beat and tore at me. I pressed my hand over his mouth to silence him, which was not easy, because I could hardly hold on to the branch._

_I took my hand away and held him at his shoulders on the jacket. I waited for the right moment and then pulled him up. At the same moment I pushed myself off from the tree, toward the floor. I squeezed the boy at me with one arm and dodged the branches that raced towards us. A branch caught me by the leg and threw us to the ground. I landed hard on the ground and bit myself lightly on the lips. We rolled about five feet and just like that we were out of reach of the willow. _

_For a while we lay still in the grass. It was so dark that the normal human eye could barely see anything. I let go of him and sat down. With one finger I touched my lips and noticed that I was bleeding. _

_"T-Thank you for saving me... but how did you do that?" _

_Surprised, I looked at him, then I remembered that he indeed could not see me well and that it had already been extremely dark before, which meant that he probably only had seen my outlines. _

_He whined as he tried to move his leg. When I looked at it more closely, I realized that it was in an unnatural angle. That would hurt if he had to heal it normally and also the boy would get in trouble because it was forbidden for the younger students to be outside at such a late hour. _

_A drop of blood ran straight down my chin, which gave me an idea. _

_At first I wiped my blood from my chin and then I pressed my finger to his mouth. Since he was totally surprised, I pressed my finger through them and made sure tp spread the blood all over his tongue. His first reaction was to swallow, and with that he drank some of my blood without even realizing it. When he had done that, I pulled my finger out of him at once, and saw that his leg returned to the correct angle and he could move it again. My own injuries were logically healed a long time ago, which made it a lot easier to get up. _

_"How... how did you do that? Did you use magic?"_

_The guy got up slowly, bent down to wipe the dust from his clothes. When he straightened up again, I had almost reached the Gryffindor dormitory already._

Mary:

I had spent the whole day in the Astronomy Tower. When the night came, my gaze wandered to the Whooping willow, because I had heard screams. But when I hadn't discovered anything, I turned around and went back to the common room. Luckily it was empty, so I could be undisturbed in the dormitory. When I wanted to lie down exhausted on the bed, I bumped into something warm and humanlike.

Confused, I whispered "Lumos."

My wand lit up and I looked at the sleeping face of Theo.

"What?" I breathed and shook him awake. He looked at me tiredly from his stormy-gray eyes. "What are you doing here?" I whispered.

"I wanted to go look for you. When I didn't find you, I came here to wait for you. I must have fallen asleep. Your bed was so soft and it smells so nice."

A little perplexed, I looked at him. "Oh... key!" I whispered and snuggled under the covers. "Why did you want to look for me?" I asked uncertainly.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "I don't care, who your ancestors are. I like you Mary. The way you are and no Malfoy in the world can change that."

I remained silent for a moment, then leaned to him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you." I breathed and turned to the side. "You should go now."

My eyes slowly closed. I didn't notice how Nott brushed my hair out of my face before he left.

_Alice:_

_The next day everything was almost like always... almost._

_"Have you really not seen anything?" Seamus asked for the third time. When I came into the Great Hall at noon, he was already with Harry and Ron and asked many questions of this kind._

_"No, we do not know who this mysterious girl is, but when everything went the way you say it, then shouldn't she have as many scratches as you?" Harry asked finally. He seemed extremely annoyed._

_Seamus was immediately silent and thought for a moment. Now I noticed that he had cuts, on the neck, arms, and on his face. _

_"You're right, Harry ... I just have to find the girl with the injuries. See you later guys!" He exclaimed and ran. _

_"If you ask me, she'll probably run away from him as soon as she sees him..." Ron said bored._

_I rolled my eyes and then turned to them. "People we have an important issue, which we need to take care of."_

_"You're right, we should start immediately if-" _

_"Wait Harry, I'm not going to ask this idiot Lockhart for help. If you really want to do that you have to go without me.'' I said clearly. _

_"But... fine, I'll see you later." Harry and Ron got up and left the hall, but before the door closed, Harry took a last glance at me. _

_Twenty minutes had passed in which I had talked with Neville to distract me, because otherwise I would have worried way to much over my two idiotic friends. But suddenly I heard a huge crash. Five minutes after that, I heard Harry shout. I got up and ran in the direction from which the cry came. The sprint ended in the woman toilet of the Moaning Myrtle. I scanned everything and discovered a metal snake craved by the sink. _

_"And at that very moment, it would be handy if I could speak Parseltongue..." I said, annoyed. _

_"Can I help you?" A voice asked a bit behind me. I turned around and saw Mary Riddle standing there. I first wanted to say no, but then I remembered what was so special about her name again._

_"Can you repeat that again in Parseltongue?" I asked her. _

_First she looked at me totally confused, but then she did. I did not understand a word, but it worked, because the sinks were split and a hole appeared in the ground. _

_"Thank you!" I shouted as I jumped into the hole._

_As I arrived I landed on a pile of bones. Quickly I stood up and followed the dark tunnel, when I suddenly discovered Ron and Lockhart. Ron sat on the floor, while Lockhart babbled something._

_"What happened? And where's Harry?" _

_They both looked at me immediately. Ron pointed to the path who was blocked by stones. _

_"I heard him screaming! We have to help him!" I said quickly._

_"How?" _

_I didn't let Ron have time to ask more questions. I had already started to hurl the stones out of the way. Damn, I didn't have enough power at that moment, because I had been too long without blood. If things went on as they were now, we would come much too late. _

_"Forgive me Ron." _

_Before I allowed a bad conscience on my part, I bit into his arm and drank a little of his blood, and then I gave him some of mine and deleted his memory. I felt absolutely alive and felt the whole vampire force that was in me. I picked up a small stone and threw it with full force through the wall, making a large hole appear. _

_"I'll go get him, wait for me here!" I shouted at Ron before I climbed through the hole and ran off to help Harry._

Mary:

I wondered why I had helped her. I don't know. After Alice had disappeared in the depths, I was still there a little indecisive. If that was the Chamber of Secrets, then they really were the Brainless Idiots. Without an heir they could never get out of this thing alive! Determined I jumped after her and again asked me why.

Once at the bottom, I met Ron and Lockhart.

"What do you want..."

"Shut up, where are they?" I yelled. Ron pointed in the direction. Without a word, I ran and met Alice, who tried desperately to open the door.

"Wait, let me try." I said, and pushed her aside. "Open up!" I muttered in Parseltongue and the lid sprang open.

Quick, without paying attention to whether Alice following me, I jumped in and burst into an unpleasant scenario.

A Basilisk, Harry and a boy, all faced each other. Well fine, Harry lay on the ground. I quickly realized who this boy was.

"Tom." I said, and his gaze came to me.

"Caution Mary. That's Voldemort! "Harry yelled at me.

"I know!" I said quietly and walked toward my great-uncle. "Stop. Please."

The boy frowned and looked from me to Harry and then back again.

"So that's how it is." He muttered, shaking his head. "I will have my revenge and my lost power! You will not stop me."

"You forget Tom, the Basilisk cannot harm me, and besides, he will obey only the current heir!"

Tom widened his eyes. "No." he breathed, looking around almost insane. "No."

_Alice:_

_I really thought that we had won, when Tom suddenly began to laugh hysterically. "It looks like dear niece, you also have forgotten something. Although you may be of my blood, I am the true heir and I know this Basilisk."_

_Mary's gaze went from confident to slightly panicked. The Basilisk hissed and attacked Harry. I grabbed Harry and threw him aside. The Basilisk nearly missed him, turned and raced on to Mary. _

_Behind the basilisk I discovered Ginny, the Sorting Hat and the Gryffindor sword. I ran to it, but Voldemort stood in front of me. _

_"What do you think you're doing?" He asked angrily. _

_''I'm going to kill your little pet.'' I ran through him and took the sword in my Hand. _

_"Mary! Over here!" _

_Mary escaped the Basilisk and came to me. _

_"I need a little jump start." I said to Mary, who immediately understood what I meant. _

_"I hope for all of us that you know what you're doing..." she said, without letting the basilisk out of her sight. _

_She folded her hands and leaned slightly down on her knees. The basilisk came rapidly toward us._

_I took a little start-up and then ran toward Mary. My foot stepped on her hands and she threw me with all the strength she had upwards. In the air I did a roll and when I came down next to the basilisk, I raised the sword high and tore it down to cut the basilisk's head. I ended up on the floor next to him and put the point of the sword calmly on the ground. In the second it touched the ground, the head of the basilisk fell off and rolled a few feet toward Harry. _

_"No ... no!" Voldemort began yelling and cursing. _

_"Harry, you must destroy the book!" Mary picked up the book from the floor and threw it at Harry, who had the idea to tear out a tooth of the basilisk to pierce the book. _

_Voldemort walked menacingly toward Harry, but before he could reach him, he dissolved into light and disappeared. From behind I heard a gasp and when I turned around, I saw Ginny lying on the ground. She was breathing heavily, but otherwise she seemed to be fine. _

_My vampire strength left me again and exhausted, I let myself fall to the ground. The others came immediately to see if I was fine and I started to laugh with all my heart. It was totally absurd that an outsider, a monster and a boy with a strange lightning scar had defeated a basilisk and Voldemort. The others were briefly silent, but then also began to laugh. So that's how the story of the Chamber of the Secrets ended, and what had we learned from this? That even the biggest freaks, no matter how different they were, could survive anything as long as they did it together._

_After this event, the rest of the school year went quite smoothly and without problems._

_Malfoy and I didn't really talk again. There was always someone turning around him, when he looked as if he tried to approach me, which was a rare occurance. Maybe it was better like that. Over time the incident got more and more in the back of my head and became insignificant. _

_One thing did change though… Mary and I talked together sometimes when we met somewhere._

_At the moment, all the Hogwarts residents sat in the Great Hall to assign the House Cup. _

_"... Hufflepuff has 168 points, Ravenclaw 159, Slytherin 200 and Gryffindor 200 in order to clarify this, I will now distribute the extra points. 50 for Mary Riddle, Alice Tepes and Harry Potter, for saving the whole School and thus Gryffindor won. I wish you all nice Holidays and an exciting next year! "_


	4. The escape of the Grimm

Mary:

''Welcome Lucius.'', resounded the Voice of Theo's father. I gave the grey eyed Man a sceptical glance. Theo had the same look as me and as if on command we both stood up at the same time.

Over the Holidays I got an Invitation from the Nott family. I could stay with them until school would start again. I immediately accepted, because I would not have survived the remaining three weeks at my Grandma's Place. Since I had portrayed her the incident of last year, she just sat sullen in her chair, muttering all sorts of weird stuff to herself. My father was on a Business trip so it was easy to choose Theo.

Now, prepared for everything, we walked down the Stone stairs and looked around the Corner. What I saw made me groan in annoyment. Lucius sat on the opposite of Theo's father in front of the fireplace and they talked to each other. That wasn't the worst. Next to Lucius sat no other than his son Draco.

I admit, he changed for the better. His blonde hair fell over his forehead, and now his gray eyes shone even brighter. As if he had sensed our presence, he raised his head and looked at me. His eyes widened briefly, and he stood up abruptly.

''What the hell are you doing here, Riddle?'' he asked without even a 'hello' first.

I already wanted to answer, but Theo was faster.

''She stays here over the holidays.'',

I couldn't really interpret his Voice. But Malfoy could.

''Since when does your father allow Mudbloods to stay here?'', his voice was full of scorn.

It was instantly silent. The fathers turned their heads in our direction.

Slowly I went to the fair-haired, stretched out my hand and slapped him. Then I stepped even closer to him, grabbed his face and hissed,

''I'm the furthest away of being a Mudblood as a Slytherin can be, Malfoy. Remember that, you Bastard.''

I let go of him and pushed him away from me. Elegantly I turned around and went up the stairs again. Leaving four startled male beings behind.

_Alice:_

_''__Alice! Open the door! Something important happened!'' The voice of my aunt came through my sleep to wake me. Groaning, I opened my eyes and there she was already. Aunt Minerva stood three feet away from my bed._

_''__What's going on?'' I asked, still tired._

_''__Someone escaped from Azkaban! Sirius Black!''_

_It took me three seconds until the Information came to my brain. As soon as I understood everything I sat up. ''So it is possible to break out of there! How did he do it?''_

_I had jumped out of bed and was already putting my clothes on. _

_''__Don't even think about it! I told you this so that you'd be careful and not that you'll do something dangerous.'' She stated, with a serious look in her eyes. Looks like I wasn't going to get more out of her._

_''__Alright… Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?'' I closed the chest with my stuff in it and put my red hair in a ponytail._

_Minerva__shook her head disapprovingly, but didn't say anything else about that._

_''__Hagrid wants to see you. He wants to test something for the classes next year.''_

_I thanked her before passing by, to leave the room._

_When I reached Hagrid's cottage, I could hear his voice coming out of the forest. I followed her and landed on a little clearing. ''Hagrid?''_

_He turned around and smiled at me. ''Ah Alice, I'd like to present you Buckbeak.'' Behind him__appeared a hippogriff, who was about a head taller than me. Thrilled I slowly stepped closer._

_''__You're beautiful…'' I stopped next to Hagrid and admired this wonderful Creature. _

_''_ _You have to__bow down before him, and if he likes you, he will do the same.'' Hagrid explained, his Voice full of pride._

_I__took another two steps towards him, then bowed down. Instead to bow, Buckbeak came directly to me and leaned his head against my shoulder. I raised my hand and began to fondle him. _

_''__Everything is alright… you're a great Guy, aren't you?'' As if he wanted to answer me he lifted his head and pressed it lightly against mine. He closed his eyes and I did the same. Everything around us was silent and I could only hear our steady breathing._

_Azkaban__had to wait, I would first take care of my new friend here._

Mary:

To my dismay the Idiot stayed with the Notts, because his own family was too busy. Yey! Luckily he didn't accompany us to the Diagon alley. Therefore, I was able to at least enjoy half a day with Theo.

''I'm so sorry Mary!'' Confused, I looked at him.

''Why?''

''Because Malfoy's here.''

I waved him off. ''It's not that bad.'' I muttered. He gave me a sceptic look.

To avoid having to continue to think about Malfoy, I looked around and saw a whole bunch of orange-haired people, among them a dark red and a brown tuft. What surprised me was a blond-haired person, whom I had never seen before. She walked right next to Alice and George. She seemed to feel my gaze, because she turned around and ice-blue eyes stared right at me. I raised my eyebrows and turned away again.

_Alice:_

_4 Days before this Meeting_

_The Weasleys had invited me to stay at their House. Actually only for an Afternoon, but Minerva absolutely wanted to distract me from this Azkaban incident and therefore,__had shipped me there for the rest of the holidays. I had to admit, her plan worked. I hadn't been bored enough to do something stupid._

_''__Alice, come here! Our guest is going to be here any minute now.'' Ron's voice came__up to me and led me down to the kitchen where all the others were waiting._

_I knew that Hermione should come sometime later this week, but I had the feeling that this guest wasn't her. I stood between Ron and George, when I noticed that the later was slightly red in the face. Okay, something was going on here. Mrs. Weasley was just passing in front of me, when I decided to ask._

_''__Ehm, Mrs. Weasley, what's so special about this guest?''_

_She__stopped abruptly in front of me and turned to me. ''She's a childhood friend of the family and she is the only one who could always keep George and Fred apart. To this day we don't know how she does it. In addition she's kind of special.'' _

_''__Why?'' I asked curiously._

_''__She's in Hogwarts too. She's a Hufflepuff even though her character doesn't really fit that house. She's brilliant and most of the School curriculum bores her. Therefore she would have fitted better in Ravenclaw, but she's also brave and she possesses other important character traits of Gryffindor. But the most important is, that she values loyalty, fair play and hard work. Personally I think that this is why she was put in Hufflepuff. She wouldn't have fitted neither in Ravenclaw nor in Gryffindor.'' Mrs. Weasley ended her sentence precisely in the same moment as the doorbell rang. _

_When she__walked to open the door, I looked at the line in which we all stood. First there was Mr. Weasley, then Percy, Fred, George, me, Ron and Ginny at the end. Mrs. Weasley opened the door and a blonde girl entered the house._ _She had__the hint of a smile on her lips but otherwise she looked totally bored. Did I mention her hair? They were so fair that they even made Malfoy's hair competition and yet they radiated a pleasant heat. She came up to all of us and stood in front of our row._

_'' __ . '' She nodded briefly and then went along the whole series. ''Weasley, Fred, George... no Weasley. '', She stood in front of me and in that second a shining ice blue collided with a juicy nature green. _

_Although__her long blond hair radiated heat, her eyes were cold. We eyed us briefly a bit curious before she continued to walk. '' Weasley, Weasley. '' _

_When she__had passed by Ginny, she turned around again. Ms. Weasley came to us and smiled._

_''__Dimé, Alice you will be sharing a room. I hope that's okay for you. I am sure that you will get along well. '' had just surprised her entire family with these few words. _

_So Dimé was her name…_ _Our eyes met and for a while the whole room was silent. We stared at each other without looking away for even a second and suddenly we both had a small, evil grin on our face. _

_''__Yes we will. '', We both said in unison._

Mary:

''Good. I wish you three a good year! '' With these words, Theo's father said goodbye. I smiled at him and nodded.

''Goodbye and thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Nott. '' I beamed and walked into the train.

''Hey Riddle. Where are you going? '' Was that necessary? Slowly I turned to Malfoy.

'' To a compartment? '' I replied, annoyed. He raised an eyebrow.

''Come with me. '' He said, grabbing my wrist. Too stunned to defend myself, I got dragged in a Slytherin compartment. It was empty. What did he want from me?

''What are you doing? '' He just looked at me. God, what was wrong with this boy?!

''What is he planning? '' Confused, I looked at him.

''Who? ''

''Don't act dumb! You know who I mean!'' He hissed and stepped closer.

''Uh, I have really no idea who you're talking about Malfoy!''

He sighed, obviously annoyed.

''I'm talking about him! ''

Honestly, the boy should express himself more precisely. I still had no idea who he was talking.

''Malfoy! I have no idea!'' Amused, I noticed that he was close to despair. Why didn't he want to say the name? ...Oh, now I knew who he was talking about.

''How would I know if he is planning something? In addition, dead people aren't planning anything!''

'' You're his daughter! You should know. There is a rumour going around that he is alive and still lurking somewhere. ''

''He's not my father. He is the brother of my grandmother! '' I clarified.

''It doesn't matter what you are. You are related to him. That's enough. So what do you know?''

Exhausted, I sat down on the bench.

''Malfoy... I do not know anything. He's freaking dead. Potter destroyed him 13 years ago!'' I said, and was annoyed at every word.

''Then why does father speak with Nott's father about it?! Explain that to me Riddle!''

''I... '' The train jerked and stopped abruptly. What the heck? We could not possibly have been there already.

''What? '', Malfoy began but ended suddenly when he felt the cold that gripped me as well. What was going on here?

''They're probably looking for Black. '' Draco muttered.

''What are you talking about?'' I asked, still very much frightened about the sudden change in atmosphere.

''Dementors. The guards of Azkaban.''

An eerie feeling and a rattling breath was the only thing I could perceive. The Dementors were in the immediate vicinity. Ok I'll never do anything stupid, I never wanted to go to Azkaban. These things gave me the creeps. When the guards of Azkaban had disappeared, Malfoy sat down on the seat in front of me, and after awhile we were joined by Theo and Astoria. While the others talked I stayed silent and watched the passing landscape.

_Alice:_

_The trip to Hogwarts had been strange. I sat with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and a man who had looked as if he was sleeping at first, in a compartment. Harry was telling us a few things, as the train suddenly stopped and the Dementors came. One had attacked Harry, but the 'sleeping' man was able to save him with a Patronus. Until then I had never seen a Patronus before, but it was god damn amazing. I had decided to learn him as fast as possible. The man had introduced himself as Professor Lupin, our new teacher for the Defenses Against the Dark Arts. This trip was way too long and I hoped that I didn't have to take this train every year now._

_When we finally arrived at Hogwarts, Dumbledore held, as every year, a speech and then let us go. Since last year, not much had changed, Neville was still a slob, Finnigan continued to search for the girl, causing explosions and__Malfoy__still__boasted about__unimportant__stuff. The only difference was that I also watched what Mary and Dimé were doing this year. At the Hufflepuff table everyone was so cheerful while Dimé quite comfortably ate her food. Mary sat between two Slytherin girls and smiled._

_I was very pleased when I remembered what would happen in Hagrid's lessons. Speaking of lessons, I couldn't see professor Lupin anywhere, which meant that he might just have some time to teach me the Patronus. Halfway through dinner I got up and left the Hall to search for Professor Lupin. I just couldn't wait any longer._


	5. Old and new friends

Mary:

From the corner of my eye I saw a movement. I looked up and followed Alice with my gaze, who disappeared from the hall.

''What is it Mary? '' Daphne asked. She and a couple of others had followed my line of sight.

''I've noticed that this girl is different from the others.'' Astoria whispered. Yes, because she was a half-vampire, I thought.

''I would stay away from her guys.'' Malfoy interjected. Rising an eyebrow, I looked at him.

''Why? Just because she does not obey your every word and defends herself against you?! ''

''No, because she's a Gryffindor and a Monster.''

I smiled sweetly. ''The only monster here, is talking to me right now. ''

Looking back at my plate I ended the conversation. But the others did not want to stop talking about it, so I let my thoughts wander off and my eyes slid through the hall.

After dinner I went to the dormitory with my friends.

''Sooo Mary. How were your holidays?'' Daphne asked with a meaningful smile. Her undertone was mischievous.

''Okay, I guess. And yours? '' Eight pair of eyes looked at me incredulously.

''What is it? '' I asked sceptically.

''You were with Theo and all you say is okay? '' The disbelief in Milicents tone was almost palpable.

''Yes?'' I didn't understand what they wanted. The girls still stared at me. Slowly it got on my nerves.

''Oh man spit it out! '' I finally hissed.

''Mary. You were alone with Theo. Theodore Nott! The boy who constantly defends you, who constantly throws you glances and who immediately starts talking about you as soon as you leave the room.''

''What?'' I breathed. The girls laughed.

''Are you really that blind Mary?'' This question came from Astoria.

''So, answer me honestly. How were your holidays?'' A little surprised, I went through my holidays again. There had never been signs that Theo would feel something like this for me.

''I really think you interpret too much in his actions. We're just good friends. And the holidays were destroyed by Malfoy.'' A gasp sounded and all eyes turned towards Pansy. Frowning, I looked at her.

''Draco was there as well? Chrm ... how nice.'' She said and laid down on the bed. She crept under her blanket and said no more.

,,Mh... I wouldn't describe it as nice.'' After that, I told them everything.

_Alice:_

_I had found Professor Lupin quickly and although he hesitated at first, he had agreed to teach me the Patronus. We had immediately started to practice. Curiously enough, Professor Lupin had a Boggart in a box._

_''It is very important that you focus on your strongest and most joyful memory.''_

_I nodded and then started to search such a memory. There had to be something... There! I had found one. I thought about me, my dad and my mom. The memory wasn't very clear but I remembered us being in a Park on a rainy day. We hurried down a street as to not get thoroughly wet. The thing I could clearly remember about this moment was that I was really happy at that time._

_''I am ready ...'' I said confidently. He nodded and went to the box. He opened it and a Dementor came out of it. At first, I was afraid, but then I quickly focused._

_''Expecto Patronum!'' My Wand hissed briefly, but nothing else happened. Concentration, concentration._

_''Expecto Patronum! '' The Dementor came closer and Professor Lupin was getting ready to go in between._

_''No professor let me! '' _

_Lupin was surprised but still resigned. _

_I was terrified and cold, but I would not let this feeling overcome me. My dad had to face those monsters more than anyone ever should, so I refused to recoil from this single one. All I needed was to feel. Stop thinking, start feeling. If it did not work with only one memory, it had to work in a different way. I let my most beautiful memories flow through my head and used that energy to strengthen my wand. I thought about my Family, the House we used to live in, the friends I had now and about the first friend I ever had. My little blond Childhood friend. At some point even the kiss with Draco from the last year came to my mind, so I used it. I used all of those memories to make myself stronger._

_''Expecto Patronum! '' A white light appeared from my wand. The light urged the Dementor back in the box. When Lupin closed it, I sat down exhausted._

_''That was incredible, Alice. And very dangerous.'' He said enthusiastically._

_''__Thank you, Professor.'' Somehow, I still managed to offer him a smile even though, all I really wanted to do right now was to sleep._

Mary:

The next day was somehow weird. All Slytherins behaved like angels towards me. The outbreak of Sirius must probably have scared them. It was funny to see how they asked me things politely and smiled. As if I was the personified evil. Ridiculous. But well, I should not complain. They left me alone. But unfortunately, not all of them. The one I wanted to avoid most, sat down next to me at breakfast. Sighing, I looked at my cornflakes and tried to ignore him. It didn't work out. He really wanted to ruin my day.

''Hey Riddle ... Why so quiet today? No snide remarks? '' He asked with raised eyebrows. I threw him a look à la shut-your-mouth and began to enjoy my flakes.

''Leave her alone Malfoy. '' Said Theo. He'd just joined us and sat down on the empty seat next to me.

''What is that to you, Nott?'' The blonde snapped back. Confused, I watched the dialogue that ensued.

''Guys shut up. I want to eat in peace.'' I exclaimed annoyed after I came to the conclusion that the two necessarily wanted to start a fight. They were both silent but threw themselves murderous glances. For real, I had no idea why. Boys were different ... yes that must be it.

_Alice:_

_After I finished the training with Professor Lupin on the next morning, I was on my way to the great hall. Everyone was whispering something about Mary. They all claimed that she knew something about Sirius and although I did not believe that, I needed to be sure that it wasn't true._

_I entered the Great Hall and found Mary, between Theo and Malfoy sitting at the Slytherin table. Theo ... I hadn't seen him for a long time, which made my kind of sad. Malfoy was just about to say something stupid to Mary, as Theo intervened. The two blondes threw themselves mean looks, when I purposefully slammed my hand on the table, between Mary and Malfoy and leaned forward._

_''Mary, do you have a minute? I want to talk to you.'' She looked at me in surprise but nodded. She stood up, when Malfoy held her by the arm._

_''You won't really go with this monster, are you Riddle? '', Malfoy spat the word monster formally out. He was back to normal, again. Maybe he got brainwashed by his father and his 'Pureblood Slytherin' values, in the holidays._

_''And why the hell not? Now let go of her before the monster bites you in your arm.'' I slightly showed my teeth, which led him to immediately let go of Mary. I turned to Theo and smiled._

_''I'm glad to see you again, Theo.''_

_''Me too, Alice.'' He replied with a smile. I gave Mary the sign to go and we started walking. We had left the Great Hall and now went to the bell tower._

_''I didn't know that you're friends with T- Nott.'' I said in a light voice._

_''I forgot that you were close and called him Theo'' She glanced at me. Fair enough._

_''How could you ever remember? He's in Slytherin and I'm a Gryffindor. There is no reason why someone should make a connection between us, unless you know that Theo and I are childhood friends. Don't ask, it's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you one day. But until then I've got a question.'' I said._

_''What is it? ''_

_''What do you know about the escape from Azkaban?''_

_''You too? Listen, all I know is that Sirius Black has escaped and that between him, Harry and you-know-who, there is a connection, but everyone knows that.'' We stopped in a corridor._

_''Well, at least you tell the truth.'' I had focused on her heartbeat. A new trick I had learned over the summer. If someone lied it beat was faster, but Mary's was very steady._

_''How do you know that?'' I threw her a look that said: Are you serious? She seemed to notice it, and after a few seconds of silence her face lit up._

_''Right. Probably some fancy vampire thing.'', instead of answering I smiled slightly and went on my way. _

Mary:

I watched Alice leave. She had saved me from a weird situation, for which I was grateful. But why was she worried about Sirius? Hm, actually, it wasn't my problem.

''Hey Mary, everything all right with you?'' Yes, he was either a leech or his mucus remained glued to me.

''Until now Malfoy, everything was.'' I replied and went on my way to Divination. He caught up with me. Sighing, I walked on.

''You know it borders on stalking what you are doing here.'' This made him laugh. ''I did not mean it as a joke.''

''C'mon Riddle, we had a bad start. How about a fresh one?'' Turning around I looked into his eyes and stared at him for a few seconds. Why should I? Was my first thought, but there crept a second one. Why not? But my scepticism answered.

''Why? Why do you want that Malfoy? Because of my name? Because of my ancestry? Why? '' He opened his mouth, closed it again and repeated this like five times. ''You know ... forget it. Just forget it Malfoy! You can put your reboot somewhere else.'' I turned around and crashed straight into the next boy. Blaise.

''What is going on here?'' He asked, looking alternately at me and Malfoy.

"Nothing. It's just swarming of incompetence here.'' I said and walked into the classroom. I sat down on an empty seat and at first didn't realize whom I was sitting next to. It was only when I met an incredulous look from the just entering Malfoy that I looked around. I sat next to Alice and the other three people who were not very popular among the Slytherins. Harry, Hermione and Ron. For a second I thought about standing up and going to my house, but Alice smiled at me and handed me a blue cup. Why not give her a chance?

_Alice:_

_I was surprised that Mary sat next to me, but then I told myself, why not. I handed her a cup and filled both, hers and mine. Trelawney let us empty them before she started to explain what our goal was. We had to exchange the cups, and then interpret the signs. Me and Mary exchanged the cups and then began to decode the stuff._

_''So I'm just gonna start.'' I said to Mary. _

_''I see quite a lot of romantic encounters, some more earnest than others, but also great danger and important decisions. Your future could be bright but at the moment it is covered by a shadow. Which, according to this book means, that you'll have to get rid of someone that is currently controlling your life. That's all. '' I said and put the cup on the table._

_Mary nodded thoughtfully, then focused on her task. _

_''That's odd... but let's start from the beginning. Your love life is complicated, and some things are yet to come to you. Looks like it will be quite hard. Now the strange part... your future is not clear...I'm not sure what that means, but it could be very dangerous... Looks like there is a crossroad? This hints at… wait, I need to look this up. Two different lifes? Sorry, divination is not really my strong point. '' _

_''__Don't worry, neither is it mine.''_

_Well... now I was thoughtful, but I was torn out of my mind when Professor Trelawney suddenly acted very erratically. Something was going on with Harry. When the hour was over, she let us go. Ready for the lessons with Hagrid, we all left the room._

Mary:

After Trelawney had let us go, we all went to Hagrid's hut.

''And yet another incompetent teacher who tries to tell us how magic works.'' Sneered Malfoy.

''Shut up Malfoy.'' Harry hissed. I watched with a raised eyebrow. Malfoy opened his mouth again to dish on it.

''Come on, just leave it. OK? It's really tiring to listen to you.'' Theo sighed and looked at him. To my surprise, he actually closed his mouth and said nothing the rest of the hour, up to the part where Hagrid had called someone else than Harry to ride on Buckbeak.

''Pf... That cannot be that hard. Come here, you ugly beast. You're not dangerous at all!'' Against all warnings, Malfoy had not been smart enough to move back and Buckbeak had taken the matter in his own hands. As Hagrid took him to the infirmary, we all stared after them in disbelief. Buckbeak was being calmed down by Alice, who slowly took him back towards the reservoir where all the magical beasts we studied were being kept.


	6. Revelations

_Alice:_

_Two __days had passed since the event. Malfoy was released from the hospital wing as of today, but he had not yet showed his face outside of it. Hagrid had told me that Lucius would go to court and demand that they executed Buckbeak. That's when I'd had enough. I decided to show Malfoy what he had done. All day I had been thinking about how I could do that and then my mind came up with an idea. It was already 9 pm and most of the students had returned to their rooms by now._

_I'd spent__the whole day outside and practiced my Patronus. Now that it was dark, I entered the school building and walked to the hospital room. I quietly opened the door and sneaked up to Draco's bed. He was asleep and was placed comfortably on his back. I cast a muffiliato, and then shook his shoulder. Slowly he opened his eyes and sat up. It took a few seconds until he realized that I was standing next to his bed. He opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't give him the time._

_''Calm down __Malfoy, I'm not here to hurt you. I want you to come with me. I need to show you something. Get up. Moreover, I know that your arm is healed, so you can come with me without any problems.'' I whispered. He folded his arms and just looked at me angrily._

_,,I'm not going anywhere with you. Did insanity finally reach you too?''_

_''Look __Malfoy ... either we do it the easy way or I'll carry you.'' That seemed to persuade him because he stood up and gave me the sign to walk. I didn't want to risk that someone might see us, or that he would run away, so I lifted him up on my back. His protests were cut short by the fact, that he hid his face from the wind. Only in the outskirts of the forbidden forest, I stopped and let him down. _

_''You kidnapped me! Just wait till my father hears about this!'', He sounded angry but the fact that he was shivering with cold made him less threatening. Somehow, I felt bad ... if he would get sick now, that would clearly be my fault. I took off my coat and threw it at him. He caught it and then looked at me with a raised eyebrow._

_''Put it on or get sick, I don't care but do not let my coat fall to the ground.'' I turned around, started to walk and heard a rustling of clothes behind me. When I glanced back, I had to smile, because he had put on my coat and looked at me in a very offended way. We reached the clearing, I stopped, and Malfoy did the same. He wanted to say something, when I raised my Hand to silence him and then lightly whistled. Buckbeak came out of the trees. Malfoy took a step back, scared. I could feel that he wanted to run._

_''I would not do that this forest is more dangerous than Buckbeak.'' That made him stop. I__walked towards Buckbeak, and then held out my hand. Buckbeak inclined his head in my hand and shrieked happily._

_''I brought__someone. '' Buckbeaks look crossed Malfoy's and both remained standing still as if frozen. After a while, Malfoy looked up at me. _

_''Why am I here..?'' He asked cautiously._

_''I will__tell you but now I want you to come to me.'' I said seriously. He looked at me as if I had said that the earth was a square._

_''__Are you crazy? This filthy thing tried to kill me!''_

_''__Yes, but just because you have offended it! I know that sounds strange, but please trust me...'', and again there was a long silence. He was probably thinking about all his options, which weren't many. And then he actually stepped closer. However, that didn't please Buckbeak because he straightened up completely, and spread his wings._

_''Buckbeak __stop. Hey, look at me. Look at me Buckbeak! '' I said sternly and turned his attention to me. '' He will not hurt you. I'm here to take care of both of you. I'll show him how wonderful you really are, but you have to do what I tell you. Agreed?'' He nodded his head and put himself back to a normal stance. ''You can come now. Once you're two steps away I want you to bow down.'' I said curtly._

_''And why__would I do that?!'' he asked angrily._

_''Out of respect. You love to be respected and if you want to be respected by him, you also have to respect him.'', Apparently that got trough to him , because he slowly bowed and waited until something happened. Buckbeak seemed pleased because he also bowed to Malfoy._

_''Thanks,__Buckbeak.'' I whispered to him. Both stood up again and looked at each other. _

_'__'__Are you ready to fly? '' I asked Malfoy cheerfully. I climbed on Buckbeak and led him to Malfoy. However, he did not look happy. ''Don't be afraid, he has already accepted you so get on ... or are you too scared?'' Malfoy gave me a murderous look that might have scared a mouse. Buckbeak stood before him. I leaned slightly to one side, holding my hand to Malfoy, so that he could climb. He hesitated briefly, then took my hand and climbed up behind me._

_''I am __not afraid of anyone. Remember that.'' I just grinned and tugged lightly on Buckbeaks feathers to get him moving. Buckbeak ran a few feet and then took off. He quickly gained height and soon we flew over the forest and the lake. At the beginning Malfoy was very tense, he had his arms around me, so as to not fall down but then he calmed down and even began to relax. After 10 minutes of flying Buckbeak slowly went back down to the clearing, where he then finally landed. Malfoy climbed down and without asking him, he helped me down._

_''Thank you.'' I said, surprised. When I was down, I said goodbye to Buckbeak. Then Malfoy and I walked back towards Hogwarts._

_''You still have to answer my question. Why did you do that? Why did you bring me here?'' He came to a halt, which made me stop too. I turned to him and smiled sadly._

_''I guess I wanted to show you that he is not a monster, no matter what you thought at first. Here almost nothing is as it seems. You should also have the opportunity to get to know Buckbeak before the verdict.'' Malfoys look lit up with betrayal._

_''The verdict... I am not going to apologize for it, if that's what you want.'' He said. I rolled my eyes and walked back to him._

_''No, what I want is for you to stop being an asshole to people and animals, just cause you don't understand them, Malfoy.''_

_There was silence between us._

_''Draco... I want you to call me Draco, Alice.'' I was totally surprised and yet very happy. I just didn't quite know why. _

_''But... there's something else. About tonight, it's just... if someone finds out about this then we will both get into a lot of trouble. And the same goes with the incident last year. I haven't told anyone and I guess neither did you or Potter but I have to be sure, that no one will ever know of this.'' Draco said seriously. I gave him a little smile and whipped out my wand._

_''Fidelius.'', The spell I had cast, wrapped itself around us._

_''Now no one is going to know. So, where should I bring you?'' I asked._

_''__I don't need to be carried like a child.'' He was frowning._

_''__I guess you don't. Let's walk then.'' The walk to the entrance of the dungeons was quiet, as we were not supposed to be walking around at this hour._

_ ''__Thank you, for keeping me company, this evening.'' I said with a slightly sarcastic voice. He threw me a look, that should have been menacing but I just couldn't take it seriously so I laughed lightly and then I could swear that I saw a slight smile on his face. He actually looked good with a smile. I pushed that thought away and said goodbye before I went back to my room. _

Mary:

A somewhat confused Malfoy entered the common room. I was sitting with Blaise, Theo and the Greengrass-sisters by the fireplace and looked surprised when Malfoy walked in our direction. He sat down beside me and stared into the fire.

''So you've been dismissed?'' Blaise asked him in a cool tone.

The blond nodded but continued to quietly look into the fire. I didn't impose myself, instead I leaned against Blaise and closed my eyes. I would have thought that Malfoy would make a huge scene about his arm, but it seemed like this wouldn't happen.

''Why so thoughtful?'' Blaise voice became softer. Perhaps the two could be friends again?

''Hm ... Oh just like that. I'm off to sleep.'' Opening my eyes again I saw how he trotted up the stairs.

''Didn't he seem a bit weird? '' I shrugged and closed my eyes again.

''Why don't you go to sleep if you're so tired?'' Blaise whispered in my ear.

''You are more convenient. '' I muttered, smiling. He laughed.

''Then you can stay.'' He smirked. Putting my head back on his shoulder, I answered Theo's question from before.

''Madame Pomfrey probably gave him something for the pain, and that's why he's so weird.''

''Hmm, could be possible.'' He grumbled

''I don't know but it seemed to me as if something unexpected happened and has confused him. '' Astoria interjected.

''Come on, let it be. It's just Malfoy. '' Blaise said and thus put an end to this issue.

''We're going to sleep. Are you coming too, Mary? '' Astoria asked. I opened up my eyes again and saw how she stood up. She was looking at me in a weird way.

Her look meant nothing good, so I got up and went after the twins. We were barely in the dormitory when they turned around and looked at me with a reprimanding look. I was too tired to know what that was supposed to mean. That's why I asked,

''What?!''

''You and Blaise? ''

''What about me and Blaise?''

'' Out of nowhere you've leaned against him?!'' Astoria exclaimed.

''Yes and? I was tired. That's not a crime! '' I said annoyed and threw myself on the bed.

''Yes, but did you need to do it in front of Theo?''

I sighed annoyed, ''What does this have to do with him? ''

''Have you not seen his eyes? '' Eh, what did she mean?

''What? Why?''

''Oh Mary ... '', the girls groaned in despair. What was it this time? ''He loves you. Can't you see?!'' Daphne added when she saw my puzzled expression. Not this again.

''There's nothing to see! He doesn't love me... I knew if he would!''

Now I was getting desperate. Why did the two insist that Theo loved me? It wasn't like that. Why should he? I mean, he comes from a rich pureblood family and I was a Muggleborn. Well if we left Voldemort aside. So, I had really nothing to offer. So why should Theo love me?

''Please give me a reason why he should be in love with me?'' I asked the two.

Again, they sighed, and Daphne answered.

''You have a good heart and you're a nice person. Who would not love you? ''

A little taken aback, I looked at her open-mouthed.

The only thing I could answer: ''Of course!'' They both shook their heads and also flopped on their beds.

''He's just a damn good friend, ok? Let's leave it at that.'' With these words, I turned away and drifted to the land of dreams.

_Alice:_

_''Hurry children, we have to go and do not forget the authorizations! Without an authorization you can't come.'' I rolled my eyes and went to my aunt._

_For five minutes now she had repeated these few sentences. Although it was snowing, I wasn't cold thanks to my natural, cool temperature._

_'' Aunty could you please sign my authorization?'' I asked with a false smile. I actually didn't want to go but Minerva hadn't agreed to let me stay here. She signed the paper and handed it back to me. _

_''Professor McGonagall! Professor McGonagall! Could you sign my authorization?'' Harry came running and stopped beside me. _

_''I'm sorry Potter, but only your legal guardian can do that.'' She explained. _

_''I know, but I thought that you might also be able to do it because you are my headteacher. '' He explained._

_''I'm sorry Potter.'' She said sadly. He turned around and walked away again._

_''Well done.'' I said sarcastically. Before she could answer I was already gone to Ron and Hermione. Yes, it was not her fault, but I just found it unfair, because who was responsible for Harry if not her?_

_During the whole trip I stayed with my friends and now we stood at the Grid that separated the forest from the Shrieking Shack._

_''Would you like to go closer?'' Hermione asked suddenly._

_'__'No, thanks.'' Ron said quickly._

_''Those are just fairy tales Ron, don't be afraid.'' I smiled to comfort him._

_''__Well well,__are you looking for your dream house, Mudblood and Weaselby?'' We turned around and spotted Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Mary._

_''Shut up __Malfoy.'' Mary and Ron said in unison. Draco turned to Mary and looked at her in surprise._

_''__Forget it. That was a mistake, you screwed up. Does one of you know where Nott is?'' Mary asked. The two other unnecessary Slytherins shook their heads. _

_''He__is in the library.'' I said. Now all looked at me as if I was some animal in a zoo._

_''Thank you,__Alice.'' Mary smiled at me and threw Draco a dirty look, when she passed by him. When Mary was gone Draco looked back at me._

_''Why do you know that?'' He asked, puzzled and annoyed._

_''Should I not?'' I asked him, rolling my eyes. He briefly looked at me, totally confused. _

_''No, you shouldn't! And you still haven't answered me!'' He now said with a loud voice. _

_''And why not? '' I asked now also slightly annoyed. He opened his mouth and closed it again._

_''Why are you here again? '' Ron asked with a mocking smile now. _

_''Shut it Weaselby!'' Draco was angry at Ron when he suddenly got a snowball in his face. And it didn't stop at just one snowball, because after a few seconds all the Slytherins had been driven away by a storm of them._

_''Harry!'' Hermione called, laughing. Harry took off his invisibility cloak and then laughed until he got a snowball in the face._

_''What the...?'', He turned to me and looked at me questioningly. I had the next snowball already in my hand and threw it at him. _

_''It's easy to defeat guys like them, but do you think that you can defeat me, too?'' I asked with a wicked smile._

_It took only a few seconds until he had picked up snow and formed it into a ball. After a few minutes we had divided into two groups. Me and Ron against Harry and Hermione. The loser had to do the Homework of the winners for the following week._

Mary:

Annoyed I followed the path to the library. I gave him a chance and this time good for nothing of Malfoy screwed up on the highest level! I really thought something good would be in him ... Mary you're just too naive, I scolded myself inwardly. Why did I even think so much about him? I would wait and see, what Theo would say. Because at some point, they had been friends. I hurried and a few minutes later I was standing outside the doors of the library. I saw Theo sit in one of the cosy reading chairs and walked resolutely through the door. The librarian looked at me warningly. I ignored her and let myself fall on the opposite chair. Theo closed his book and looked at me smiling, but when he saw my expression his changed.

''What's going on Mary?'' He asked me.

''Argh... Malfoy. I thought he would change sometime or show me his good side!'' I exclaimed.

''Please Miss Riddle. This is a library. Be a little quieter!'', Reminded me Miss Pince. I looked at her apologetically and turned back to Theo. He looked a little taken aback.

''Wait a second. What exactly happened? '' He asked, looking at me intently. I smiled slightly. I had known that he would listen to me.

''Malfoy came to me today and asked me if I would go to Hogsmeade with him. I thought, why not? Everyone deserves a chance. Well, he had his chance and he thoroughly screwed up.''

''What did he do?'' He asked with an unfathomable undertone.

''Once again he threw dirty insults around him.'' I sighed annoyed.

''Oh, let him. He will never change. You've tried it, now occupy yourself with other things.'' He told me.

''Yes, you are right. But to me he was different. Not like... Malfoy.''

''He's only playing. In truth, he's surely preparing something. Mary, he has offended you in the worst possible way! Doesn't it seem weird to you that he's suddenly treating you so nice?'' I thought about his words. It was true, it was pretty suspicious.

''Yes you are right. I won't behave so carelessly again when he is near me.''

''Good.'' He said, and oddly enough, a smile spread across his face.

_Alice:_

_After the snowball fight, that I had won, we went back to Hogwarts. I had separated from the others and was still wandering a bit through the school when I realized that I was being followed. In an empty hallway I stopped and turned around. Something was wrong here. I looked around but saw no one, and yet I was not stupid enough to believe that it was all in my head._

_''Hey Alice.'', startled I turned around and looked straight into Theo's eyes. I was so concentrated on that person that I had totally overlooked Theo. _

_''You totally scared me.'' I said and calmed down. _

_''That's still possible?'' He asked with a playful smile, that did not quite reach his eyes._

_''If it's you then yes, but whatever. I know you Theo, something bothers you, or you would not be like that.'' I said._

_''And how am I?'' He asked, surprised. _

_''You don't control your shoulders. You partly let them hang. You kind of avoid eye contact and you're playing with your hands. And you're doing it since the 'Hey Alice.' So what's going on? Do I need to chase away a big bad dog again?'' I asked with a grin. _

_When we were little Theo and I had built a treehouse together. One day when I was on my way to get there, Theo came crying to meet me and told me that a huge beast blocked the way. We ran there together and when I discovered that the giant monster was the stupid dog of the neighbours, Theo got a blow to the head, from me. Theo smiled at the memory, but quickly became serious again. _

_''It's about Mary.'' Mary huh?_

_''We shouldn't talk here.'' Although the feeling of being followed, was gone, I still did not feel safe. Was there a place where a Gryffindor and a Slytherin could talk without being overheard? While thinking, I was slightly pacing around._

_Suddenly I saw a door that I had never seen before. It felt like I knew this school by heart._ _There shouldn't be a door here. But Theo did not know that and just went in. I decided to solve the mystery of the door a bit later and entered the room behind Theo. In the room was an already lighted oven, a fluffy carpet, a few bookcases and two red armchairs. I closed the door behind me and pushed myself into the room._

_I sat down in a chair and looked expectantly at Theo. He took a deep breath and sat down. _

_''Is there anything wrong with me?'' _

_Okay, I didn't expect that._

_''What do you mean?'' I asked curious and surprised._

_''Am I ugly? Or extremely stupid? Is something else wrong with me?'' He asked, now in a desperate tone. I was very surprised by his sudden outburst. I looked him up from his head, with his tousled dark blond hair, his pretty grey eyes, down to his feet._

_Even as a child he had been sweet but now he was kinda handsome._ _Although he was a little scared sometimes and he didn't always think everything through, but I was pretty sure that at least, he was definitely smarter than Draco._

_''No, you surely aren't stupid. You are handsome, and I have no idea what is wrong with you, but if I remember it correctly you- '' Theo had thrown a pillow at me. I had caught it with ease and began to laugh._

_''If I'm so great, then why are the girls I like never in love with me too?'' He asked._

_''You mean Mary, right?''_

_''Not only. Yes, currently I clearly mean Mary but with you it was the same thing.'' he said desperately._

_''You know that at that time it wasn't due to you. I've always been unromantic. I do not understand why everyone always makes such a drama about love. And Mary... Mary is indeed blind without knowing it. It's not you. Mary simply does not see that you two would be perfect together.'' I told him. ''I'm going to talk to her, but now I have to go.'' I promised him._

_I got up and hugged him goodbye. Shortly before I left the room, I heard him say: ''One day a guy will come and knock you off your feet. Just wait and see Tepes!''_

_I winked at him, smiled and then heard him laugh. Still smiling I left and walked down the hall, but the smile quickly disappeared when I heard a commotion in front of the Gryffindor common room. I hurried up to get there and then stopped behind Seamus._

_''What is going on here?'' I asked him. He turned to me with a slightly troubled expression._

_''Sirius Black is in Hogwarts. Dumbledore said that we all had to go to the Great Hall. He and the other teachers are freaking out.'' He said quickly. Black was here... so that feeling from before might have been him… I had to act as fast as possible. I wanted to meet this man. I would take action this evening._

Mary:

As Professor Snape drove us out of our rooms with a grim look, I already thought that something was wrong. I ran forward to Snape and pulled up beside him.

''What's going on Professor?'' His eyes pierced me.

''Sirius Black sneaks around here somewhere in the castle, so the whole school will be sleeping in the Great Hall.'' He replied reluctantly.

Black was here?! Ok ... Wait a minute, if Alice knew that too ... I quickened my pace and came just in time to see how she crept out of the Great Hall. Without thinking, I went after her. I knew Alice would want to search for the Azkaban escapee. She was incredibly fast.

''Hurry up Mary.'' Her voice rang out suddenly and she turned around. I sighed, glad that she slowed down for me.

''I can't be as fast as you.'' I said somewhat breathlessly. ''And anyway why do you insist to chase an Azkaban inmate?'' I asked.

''I've got somethings I need to clarify.'' She said.

''What things?'' She waved me off. Hm. We weren't close enough that she would have told me that. There lacked the confidence. We walked in silence for a while. Me with a pounding and nervous heart.

''Calm down. In an emergency, we can deal with him.'' She said reassuringly. Mh. Well of course it was easy for her but I highly doubted that her statement was true. I could see that her hand, that wasn't holding her Wand was slightly shaking. SO she wasn't sure either. I decided not to comment on it.

''Mary what exactly do you think of Theo?'' She asked me out of the blue.

''Why are you asking me that?''

''Because the sky is blue, so what do you think of him?''

''Eh... I like him a lot. He always listens to me and is always there for me. Almost like a brother.'' Alice sighed deeply and rolled her eyes.

''What?'' I asked perplexed.

''You're so naive.'' She said, shaking her head, with closed eyes.

''Why? ''

''You really need some help with this kind of thing, Mary. '' She said further, thus ignoring my question.

''Huh?'' Now I didn't understand anything anymore. What did she mean?

''We will talk tomorrow. Come we're going back to the hall. We probably won't find him anymore tonight. '' With those words she turned around and sneaked back towards the great hall.


	7. How to save a life

_Alice:_

_''Harry! Ron! Come with me, I need your help.''_

_Last night had seemed endless to me, so I was in a pretty bad mood today. Harry and Ron came over and looked at me questioningly._

_''I have a friend and she has a lot to learn when it comes to guys. So today we will help her.'' I told them briefly and pulled both with me. From the corner of my eye I could see them giving each other weird looks but I could give them no pity, because I had to help Theo. I didn't care about their embarrassment._

_I had told Mary to wait for me in one of the classrooms. We entered the room and I let go of the two. Mary stood up and looked confused._

_''Why exactly am I here?'' She asked somewhat uncertain. ''We are going to give you a lesson about boys. Soo, let's get started.'' I placed Harry and Ron side by side and Mary in a chai across from them._

_'__'What does it mean when a boy next to you quickly gets red or is slightly nervous?''_

Mary:

Taken by surprise, I looked at Alice.

''No idea? He has a fever, or he's not feeling well? '', I replied uncertainly.

She clapped her hand to her forehead. ''Ron, what do you think about that?'', Alice now turned to the red-head. He was getting a little red. ''Well I'd say that the boy shows interest in a girl. ''

''Hah!'' I jumped up and pointed at him. ''Then you're interested in Alice!'' I exclaimed, happy that I got it.

''What?!'' Ron yelled and now his ears were red too. No, his entire face made his hair competition.

''Hit.'' I laughed. Even Harry joined in my laughter. Alice just looked with a raised eyebrow.

''There are many different types of blushing. This is one of embarrassment.'' She said gravely.

''Ok... but why should I even learn this?''

''So that you finally realize what Theo feels for you!'' She said slightly annoyed. Not her too! ''Why does everyone think that he feels something for me!'' I yelled annoyed.

''Because it is so!'' She retorted.

''You're just interpreting something! He's just a friend. A damn good friend, yes, but no more!'' Annoyed I walked past the guys. ''I appreciate that you want to help me, but there's nothing. '' I said to Alice and stepped out of the room. I just had to get out. I had to go cool my head and think about some stuff.

_Alice:_

_Ron and Harry looked at me._

_''What just happened here?'' Ron asked in a confused tone. Hm, I actually didn't know that myself._

_Suddenly Hermione rushed into the room and pulled us out. _

_''Guys hurry up! Buckbeak is going to be executed!''_

_We ran through the school building, when I suddenly stopped. I felt it again, this presence. Black was here. Harry had stopped and looked at me questioningly._

_''__Go! I'll catch up!'' I yelled to them. He nodded and ran on. So where are you Black? I tried to locate him but couldn't, there was too much going on in the near proximity. Damn, I did not have the time for this shit! I ran on, when I turned around a corner and suddenly slammed into someone._ _I fell backwards flat on my arse. Draco sat on the floor in front of me, holding his nose. Crabbe and Goyle came running around the corner behind him and stopped. Draco gave them the sign to move on and stood up when they were out of sight. He seemed to be in an internal debate before he offered me his hand to get up. Saying that I was surprised was an understatement. I couldn't remember a time where Draco had been any kind of chivalrous towards me. Granted he had knocked me off my feet first but that had most certainly been an accident. A tingling warm feeling spread in my stomach as I looked up at him. And suddenly the blood hit me. It was coming out of his nose and there was some on his sleeve. The tingling was replaced by a carnal urge to press myself up against him and clean his face and maybe take some more. I didn't dare take his hand. Instead I stood up on my own, which seemed to offend him to a certain degree because he huffed and tried to walk past me. I reached out and held on to his shirt._

_''Thank you, Draco. That was very kind. I knew it, you do have a warm heart. That's something you can be proud of.'', I said loud enough for him to hear me. His eyes widened. I would never forget that Draco's kindness had temporarily made me forget blood that was literally smeared on his face. I gave him a smile and walked on. I only brought a couple of meters between us when I suddenly heard a growl._

_I turned around and saw that Draco was turned in my direction and that there was a Grimm between us, who looked as if he would jump up to eat Draco's face any second now._

_''Here you are, Black.'' I whispered barely audible. Draco was paralyzed with fear, Black made himself ready to jump and I smiled devilishly. Between him and Draco were seven meters, between me and Draco fifteen. Let's see who was faster, the Grimm or the vampire._

_The second Black jumped; I ran. In the second last meter, I passed him by and pulled Draco to the ground. We rolled a few feet until I stopped to keep the Grimm in sight. The Grimm growled at us and looked at me in anger. He looked as if he was going to attack again, but then he apparently found something more interesting and ran off. Oh no, you won't escape me so easily, I thought angrily. I glanced at Draco, who was under me, to see if he was okay._ _He slowly calmed down, but the word fear was written on his face._

_''Go back to your dorm, it is safer for you there. Tell no one what happened, I'll take care of the Grimm. Ah, and before I forget, I saved your life, now you owe me one.'' I said and stood up without paying attention to him. I started to run and the last thing I heard was how he called my name._

_I followed Blacks tracks that brought me to this damned whomping willow. Currently Harry and Hermione were trapped on it. I heard noises under the tree and discovered an entrance. Now I just needed to be fast enough to come in. I threw Harry and Hermione a final look and then ran in. They would manage. I jumped in between the branches and ran through the entrance._

_I ended up in a room in the Shrieking Shack. Ron was sitting injured in the back part while holding on to his rat._ _Why was Ron here? He looked scared past me. I turned around and there he was, Sirius Black._

_''I've been looking for you Black.'' I said determined and stood between him and Ron. Sirius was extremely nervous and raised an eyebrow._

_''How did you escape from Azkaban?'' I asked a little more energetic. When the word Azkaban fell, he flickered a little. From the looks of it, he had been suffering there._

_''That's none of your business girl!'' He said angrily._

_''Like hell it is! My father is there!'' I yelled angrily._

_''Alice.'' I turned to the side and saw Harry and Hermione._

_''It's a trap.'' Ron finally said. _

_Harry got extremely angry at the sight of Sirius._ _Harry attacked Sirius, pushing him to the ground. Sirius just laughed like a maniac. Harry was just about to blow away his head when the door opened and Lupin burst in. _

_"Expelliarmus!" He shouted and Harry's wand flew away. Lupin gave Harry the sign to get off Sirius and then went to him._

_"You look pretty dirty. Finally, your appearance shows your inner madness."_

_"You wouldn't want to say something about the madness inside, do you Remus?'' Sirius asked. Lupin began to smile and helped Sirius to get to his feet. They embraced and thus shocked us all. I did not expect that._

_"I've waited so long! Let us kill him now!" Sirius said. Now Hermione intervened and said that Lupin was a werewolf and with that, some strange minutes started._

_Finally, it turned out that Ron's rat was the man who had betrayed Harrys parents to Voldemort. Snape had arrived too, but Harry had blown his lights out. After a very strange situation we now all stood back out on the field close to the willow._

_Me and Hermione helped Ron to walk, because he was quite hurt. Harry was talking to Sirius when Snape came out and threatened him with his wand. However, I discovered a much bigger issue. _

_"Guys, we have a problem!" I yelled. _

_The others discovered the problem. Lupin was turning, Sirius tried to talk to him while Snape protected us. But the werewolf smacked black away and ran away after a howl coming from a different direction._ _Sirius, who was a dog again, walked away wounded and Harry ran after him. Professor Snape could hold us about 3 minutes, before I had freed myself and ran down too._

_When I arrived, Harry and Sirius lay side by side on the floor. I knelt next to Harry and felt his pulse. He was weak but at least it was there. I had just the time to bite myself in the arm and to give Harry and Sirius some of my blood. I wasn't quite sure why I had saved Sirius, but I knew I would regret it if he was going to die now. Just as I removed the arm from Sirius mouth, the others came running down._

_After this everything happened quickly. Sirius was detained in the Astronomy Tower, Harry and Ron were transported to the hospital wing and I waited with Hermione for our two princesses to wake up. After 10 minutes, Harry finally woke up. Shortly afterwards, Ron opened his eyes. Hermione explained to both of them what was going on when Dumbledore suddenly entered the room and came to us. Harry told him that Sirius was innocent, whereupon Dumbledore once again said something confusing about, 3 rotations and more than one innocent life. But I was only half listening because I was distracted by the fact that he pushed down on Ron's leg unintentionally. When he was gone, Hermione began to say strange things and took out a long chain._

_''This is a time-turner. McGonagall gave it to me at the beginning of the year, so that I was able to attend all classes." She put the chain around me, Harry and herself._

_"Sorry Ron, but as you are now, you cannot help us. "She said swiftly and then turned three times on a small cogwheel. Suddenly the room went back past us. The whole time was running backwards. AS the time stopped again, you could hear a clock strike._

_"Dumbledore wanted us to come back to this very moment. Where were we at eight o' clock?" Hermione asked. I thought about it for a second before I realized._

_"Buckbeak!" I cried. _

_I started to run and the other two followed me. We arrived just in time to see how Hermione straight up punched Draco in the face. So that's why he had held his nose when I met him. Which meant that... I grabbed the other two and ran._

_"What's wrong Alice?" Harry asked, confused._ _I looked back into the distance, and yes, I had been right. There I stood, or rather sat on the ground, because I just ran into Draco. I didn't want them to know about the moment I had shared with Draco. It was private. _

_"We have to hurry I do not want to be late. And we probably shouldn't run into ourselves.''_

_We went down the hill and could free Buckbeak just in time. We entered the forest to hide and went near the willow. We were able to see how the other version us disappeared into the tree, followed by Lupin and Snape._

_"And now we wait..." Hermione said._

_"Alice ... you said that your father is in Azkaban. I know, it's none of my bus-"_

_"He killed a Ministry employee, but he is innocent..." I said sadly. Harry and Hermione both looked at me quizzically. "I was 5 years old. My mother was already dead. One day my father and I were out for a walk, just like we had done it many times. when suddenly, three men attacked us._ _They were all wizards and of course I was too young to defend myself, not like today. My father could kill their leader, which made the others run away. When my father took off the man's mask it turned out that it was a Ministry employee. My father was arrested and taken to court. When I testified at the trial, one said, that I was lying and that I was traumatized, and I could not remember the 'Truth'. This 'truth' was that my father attacked the Ministry officials for no reason. The two who had fled, testified as witnesses and, of course, they believed them more than they believed me. My father was sent to Azkaban and I came to Hogwarts. I can only visit him once a year._ _When I heard the story of the outbreak, I absolutely wanted to find Sirius. It may sound silly but-"_

_"No, it does not sound stupid." Harry said and hugged me. Hermione also smiled at me kindly. Suddenly I heard a noise._

_"Here we go." I said and pulled away from Harry. We turned around and watched the spectacle. Suddenly our Hermione yelped like a werewolf._

_"What are you doing?" I asked worriedly, because the werewolf was off the Grimm and came running towards us. _

_"I draw his attention from Sirius" She said quickly._

_"Awesome Hermione. But now he's coming towards us. " Harry said, and took a few steps back._

_"Run!" Hermione shouted and ran. Harry went after her and I gave my best to stay at their pace. It was better to stay in the group. The other two hid behind a tree and I climbed up on a higher branch. Three seconds later he was here, the werewolf. He slowly sneaked around through the trees, trying to find us._

_Harry and Hermione tried to go around the tree, but they were too fast, he would see them any second now. To prevent this, I jumped down from the tree and landed on him, of course he had not expected that and therefore fell to the ground. However, he reacted quickly and threw me against a tree. I felt a strong pain in the back, but still stood up again. _

_We were facing each other and stared at us attentively. I was not sure if I could take on a full-grown werewolf. Or rather, I was sure that I couldn't. Fortunately, I did not have to find that out because Buckbeak turned up and took care of him. Me, Harry and Hermione ran on, down to the small lake. We saw how the other Harry and Sirius were dying. _

_"You will see, my father will be right there!" Harry said excitedly. But after a few seconds still nothing happened and there I couldn't wait any longer. Harry and Sirius were dying. Eaten up by the dementors._

_I made a few steps forward and took out my wand. From the corner of my eye I saw that Harry did the same thing and at the same time we said the saving words._

_"Expecto Patronum!", Giant white light beams came from our wands, in addition to the light, a deer came out of his wand and out of mine a desert fox. Together we had quickly cleared the area of Dementors._

_After that, everything happened the way it had with the other us. A short time later we were on Buckbeak, on our way to the Astronomy Tower. When we landed, Hermione freed Sirius and we flew to a secure part of Hogwarts._

_"Take me with you!" Harry pleaded, but Sirius had to decline and turned to me before going._

_"You absolutely have to speak with your father. I know him, he is one of the few decent people there. Something important has happened and it is important that he tells you everything, believe me. But now I have to go, it was nice to meet you all, I hope that we will all see each other again."_

_Heavy hearted I said goodbye to buckbeak, and then the two flew away. _

_"We have to go back, now!" Hermione yelled and made us run. Just in time we came back to the hospital wing. On the way, we had met Dumbledore, who had acted, as if he knew nothing. That sly old man._

Mary

Alice was wrong… she just had to be. Theo was my friend, nothing else. But while thinking that, I couldn't stop my mind from picturing me and Theo together as a couple. I blushed and then put my hands on my cheeks. Get a hold of yourself, Mary! It's not as if I had feelings for him, right? No, I had to stop myself from thinking like that. To do so, I decided to spend some time with the others. On my way to the common room I spotted Draco who stood by the stairs who led to the dungeons. He was peeking at the way that went to the entrance of the infirmary.

''What are you doing?''

He almost jumped to the ceiling and I snickered. He turned around, took note of me and went back to staring at the way.

''Nothing. Go away.'' Why did he always have to be so mean? Well, didn't matter. I passed by him and went down the stairs and straight to the common room. There I met Astoria and Daphne who were talking about some girls. They seemed to notice me and called me over. Smiling I went to them and we spent the rest of the day talking about everything and nothing at once. Sometime in between Draco came in with a satisfied look on his face. Whatever or whoever he was looking for, had to havecross his path.

Alice:

_After those exciting moments, time passed and the investigations against Sirius led the Ministry into another direction, away from Hogwarts. Peace returned to the School, which was much needed cause we had to prepare for the yearly exams. Hermione and I founded a study group. Sometimes Harry and especially Ron were interrupting but most of the time it was easy to concentrate and just like that the remaining few months were over soon and with that, so were the exams. We passed with magnitude. Some of us did, others just passed, and to celebrate we made a picnic. It was a beautiful sunny day and it felt great to spend some time with my friends, like normal people do. No more stressing about the exams or Sirius Black. _

_The only thing that still bothered me was, that Professor Lupin resigned his job at our School. I had met him a couple of days ago. Or rather, I had walked into him packing his stuff. His departure made me sad. He was one of the only people I knew who understood how it was to have a monster on the inside. He had noticed my sadness and gave me a reassuring smile. He told me that he would always lend me an ear if I needed someone to talk to about this subject. He also told me that I shouldn't stop practicing my Patronus._

_Like in the last couple of years, Gryffindor won the House Cup again and then we all parted ways. But before leaving, Ron had given me a ticket for the World Cup of Quidditch. I was convinced that the next year would be very exciting. I just hoped that there wouldn't be as many troubles._

Mary_:_

My year passed uneventfully. I wasn't surprised that this year again, Gryffindor won the House Cup. And again, with extra points. But I granted it Alice and the other people, they did deserve them after all. When we arrived at the station, Theo pulled me aside and hugged me tightly. Surprised, I hugged him and looked at him expectantly.

"I've got a surprise for you." He muttered. Slightly blushing, he fumbled in his robes. Finally, he pulled out a long envelope and handed it to me. I eagerly ripped it open and stared in shock at the content.

"And?" Theo asked, after I still hadn't said anything after a minute. I struggled for words.

"Are you serious?" I finally broke out. He nodded.

"Theo, you're giving me a ticket for the Quidditch finals?!" I almost shouted with joy and fell around his neck.

''Yes. And my father has offered again that you can come to us for a month. Will you? "He asked me and looked at me uncertainly.

"Of course I will. I just need to clarify things with Pa and Grandma. "I said and he looked at the people I just mentioned. They waved to me. "So Theo. I am sending you an owl. " I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek, before I left and waved goodbye.

"So that's Nott.", Greeted me my Grandma.

"Yes, he seems to be a good match for you. A cute couple." She said and smiled at me.

"Grandma, he's not my boyfriend. He's only a very good friend. " I clarified. She was still smiling.

"Well, the familiarity made it seem like." She added, looking at my father. "What do you say John?" He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. He looked back and forth between me and Nott. Finally, he shrugged.

"Nice boy." He said and turned around. ''Can we leave now?"

"Sure, Dad. But I still have a small question?"

"Yes little one?" He asked and I rolled my eyes. "

''Could I stay with the Notts again? Only the last month. Mr. Nott already agreed, and it even was his suggestion. Theo wanted to go to the Quidditch final with me. It takes place in the last two weeks of my vacation."

"Sure honey, but the first month you stay here. Your cousins come to visit us again.''

Great. Two crazy idiots in our apartment. Soo those holidays are going to be interesting, that's for sure.

The weeks passed rather quickly and as I had predicted, they weren't boring. Full of anticipation for the next month I packed my suitcase and placed it in front of the fireplace.

"Have fun next year.", My family wished me, before I threw the floo powder into the fireplace.

"The Notts!" I shouted clearly and stepped into the emerald flames. With one last big smile, I said goodbye.

A few seconds later I was received in Theo's living room.

. "Mary." Theo greeted me and took me in his arms. Oh yes, I had missed him. "How were your holidays?"

"Until now? Chaotic." I laughed and turned to Theo's father. "Thank you for allowing me to stay here." I said politely and smiled slightly.

"Anytime Mary. You are always welcome!"

"Thank you." I repeated myself.

"Come, I'll carry your suitcase up to your room." Theo offered, grabbing the black handle of my suitcase. He lead the way and I went after him. We stopped next to the room I had stayed the last time.

"You get the same room as last time." He grinned and opened the door. "Arrange yourself. I'll come back later."

I nodded and heaved the giant suitcase in 'my' room.

The weeks went by quickly and soon we were closer to the day of departure for the Quidditch final. When the day finally came, I took Mr. Notts arm and we three apparated to the game. We appeared in front of a staff person from the Ministry.

"The Notts, 11.30 clock! Campgrounds in sector 15 at No. 401 4th in row, " he informed us monotonous. We nodded to him and went on our way. Arriving at the tent I opened my mouth. This was not happening right now! We had our tent next to the Malfoys.

_Alice:_

_''Hurry up children!" Exclaimed Mr. Weasley. _

_Today was finally the beginning of the Quidditch final. In addition to Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and me, Harry and Hermione were there too._

_"Ah, here they are!" Mr. Weasley walked up to a man who seemed to be waiting for us under a tree._

_"May I introduce you to Mr. Diggory. He works with me at the Ministry. And uh ... where is he?" Asked Mr. Weasley and in this exact moment a guy sprang out of a tree. _

_"This is my son Cedric, he's at Hogwarts too. So, now we really have to go." Said Mr. Diggory and made us move. _

_Mr. Diggory was very excited about Harry, while Hermione and Ginny seemed rather enthusiastic about Cedric, but he threw most glances at me. He probably wasn't used to the paleness of my skin, especially in the peak of summer. Me and Ron watched the spectacle from a safe distance. On a hill, we stopped and placed us around an old leather boot._

_"So people on three, you all need to hold on to the portkey!" Said Mr. Weasley shortly._

_"What?" Harry asked confused, but too quiet for anyone to hear him. _

_"1 ... 2 ... 3!" _

_As Harry still did not move, I pulled his arm forward and put his hand on the boot. I don't know how, but suddenly we were hurled through the air._

_"Let go, children!" Mr. Weasley shouted. _

_Was he crazy? Although I really doubted the existence of his brain cells right now, I let go and immediately fell down. But I was not the only one. All others, except for the adults and Cedric also dropped to the floor. I looked at how these 3 somehow walked through the air and landed on the ground. Everyone began to get up and I also wanted to get up just as someone held his hand out to me. I looked up and met Cedric's eyes. _

_"Let me help you.", He said with a smile._

_I didn't exactly know what I should think of this guy, but I had no time to think about it right now, I was about to take his hand, but just before our hand touched, I was pulled upwards from the back._

_Cedric's eyes widened in surprise, but he pulled himself together quickly and smiled. When I turned around, I had obviously not thought of how close the person had to be to me, to pull me up. And so, it happened that my lips almost touched Harrys. I almost stumbled back._

_"Thanks for the help, Harry." I muttered and turned around before I walked away. _

_Suddenly, now that I paid attention to my surroundings, I discovered all the tents and the people who were happily dancing or drinking. We walked pass the tents until we stopped in front of a small tent._

_"Well, see you later." Mr. Weasley said to Mr. Diggory and entered the tent. The rest of us except the Diggorys and Harry entered the tent. Although it looked very small from the outside, inside it was huge._

_"Ginny, Hermione and Alice, you can choose a couple of beds." Mr. Weasley said kindly. Me and the other two walked a bit through the tent and then decided on a, room with three beds._

_A few hours later we entered the stadium and were on our way to our seats in the honour lounge. I was not really excited to sit there, but I was not going to be picky since I was happy that I could be here. _

_"Oh you're here?" We suddenly heard. I turned around and saw Lucius Malfoy standing behind us._

_"Lucius." Mr. Weasley said curtly. _

_"Arthur." _

_We had arrived in the honour lounge and I laid eyes on the man I never wanted to see again, Cornelius Fudge._

_"Ah, the Weasleys and the Malfoys, nice to have you here. And you have even brought guests! Mr. Potter nice to see you again, and you must be Miss Granger. I've heard that you have exceptional grades. And-" he instantaneously stopped to talk, when he saw me. "What a coincidence that you are here, Miss Tepes ..." he said, without the vigour he previously had. _

_"It is, isn't it?" I said sarcastically. _

_"Mr. Fudge, may I introduce to you, my wife Narcissa and my son Draco." Mr. Malfoy had pushed himself forward and now proudly showed his family, which now also joined the front. Mr. Fudge turned his gaze from me and now focused on the Malfoys._

_"Come on, let's go children." Said Mr. Weasley, and went on._

_I walked past Malfoy and gave him a quick look. He did the same and in this moment I could see something weird in his eyes. It looked like misery. His gaze went back to Mr. Fudge and he started to act all nice. That was weird. Shouldn't he be happy to be here with his family?_

_"Malfoy will probably never change!" I heard Ron whisper behind me. I didn't know if he was right or wrong, but it didn't really matter anyway. We followed Mr. Weasley further when someone suddenly called out my name. I stopped and spotted Theo and Mary in the crowd._

_"How are you?" I asked with a smile. Mary and Theo came to us. _

_"Great! I'm really glad that I'm here." Mary said excitedly. "And that only thanks to Theo," she added with a smile. I could see how he blushed slightly behind her, but she did not notice._

Mary:

"Theo, Mary, come sit down!" Yelled Mr. Nott.

"We have to go. Ciao people, maybe we will meet again." I said, smiling to the Gryffindors. Theo waved uncertainly.

"Isn't it weird for you to be seen and to cope with them?" Asked Theo unexpectedly.

"Nope," I answered promptly.

I let myself fall on the chair beside Theo and noticed too late that Malfoy Junior sat right by me.

"Riddle, what a coincidence." He said and made me flinch, while I tried to ignore him.

The tournament started and I got half a heart attack when I saw Krum fly in. Over the whole match I admired his flying skills and then left the stadium happy.

"Oh, Krum is so insanely cool." I enthused Theo's ears fully. He only gave an incomprehensible sound.

We were heading for our tent, when suddenly a cry and bangs were heard. In front of me a group of masked people popped up. They pointed their wands at the tents and those instantly went up in flames. As the group passed us, I got pulled in and something hard hit me on the head. I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I found myself on the floor again. Everything around me was burned.

"You're awake." Startled, I stood up and looked into the young face of a man.

"Who are you?" I asked weakly and looked at him. He grabbed my left arm and said:

"A faithful follower." With these words, he drew his wand and pointed it at my arm. Green sparks and a stinging burning spread. When it stopped, the Dark Mark appeared. Shocked I slumped back to the ground.

"Mary!"

_Alice:_

_It was a huge mess ... A few minutes ago, everything was fine and now everything was in flames. Death Eaters had surfaced and had set everything on fire. Curiously enough, no one except me thought to fight them and therefore everyone was running back and forth in panic. I ran through the crowd looking for someone I knew. Our whole group had somehow been split up. After ten minutes, most people and the fire were gone. Since I still hadn't found anyone, I ran across the field between the burned down tents. Suddenly I spotted two people in the distance. I recognized Mary but not the other one. Suddenly the guy grabbed her arm and did something. I was too shocked to react but as Mary slumped down, I was able to break away from this rigidity. _

_"Mary!" I ran to her and stood between the two. "Bombarda Maxima!" I shouted and pointed my wand at the guy. He was too surprised to react and flew in the air with an explosion._

_I watched as he stood up in the distance, and pointed his wand towards the sky. Out of a spark the Dark Mark suddenly appeared._

_"Mary, get up we-" I suddenly discovered the mark on her arm. She sat totally paralyzed on the ground, staring at her arm. "Get up!" I pulled her up and tore off a piece of my sweater and tied it around her arm to cover the Mark. _

_"Alice ..." she said suddenly, looking past me. I turned around and saw Harry standing there, who looked horrified. This was a very bad situation. Something switched inside me and I started to act mechanically. _

_"Damn." I said, and ran to Harry. I held him by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. "I'm sorry, I am so sorry." I whispered. "Harry, you came here and saw how Mary was hurt, because of a fallen pole. We helped bandage her arm. You will not remember what really happened." I released him and stepped back. I didn't like it to manipulate people. Especially people I liked._

_"Harry! Alice! There you are!"_

Mary:

Guilty, I turned around. Mr. Weasley and some Ministry officials had appeared behind us.

"Who was it? Who did it? Confess!" Suddenly, a man stumbled toward us. On his head perched a bowler, his wand swung between the three of us back and forth.

"Barty, these are children, for god's sake!" Said Mr. Weasley outraged. But this man stepped closer and looked at me more closely.

"Come on girl, confess your act!" He dug his wand into my stomach.

"I can't confess anything I did not do Mr. Crouch." I gasped.

Pinching his eyes scanned me from above. His gaze stayed at my left arm. "What's that?" He hissed lurking.

"Mary has been injured! A pole fell down upon her!" Alice said and turned to Harry. "Right Harry?"

The latter nodded. "Yes, I saw it. We came to help her."

" But then who conjured up this damned thing?"

"A man. Alice and I, we have seen a man. When he saw us, he ran in this direction." I pointed to the right. They seemed to believe me, then they instantly started to move.

"Mary. For God's sake!" Cried a voice, I turned my head in the direction of the voice and saw Mr. Nott and Theo run towards me. Theo immediately took me into his arms and hugged me tight.

"We were so worried!" He whispered. "Please, never disappear again," he added. I just shook my head, unable to speak.

"Thank you, Arthur, for the Patronus." Said Mr. Nott and shook the hand of the redhead almost to death.

"You're welcome." Muttered the other.

"Come on, Mary. Let's go home." With these words he took Theo's and my hand and we apparated into the property of the Notts. Once home they wanted to examine my arm.

''No, it's okay, I'll do it myself. "I mumbled and dragged me to my room. I tore the piece off of my arm.

My first thought was: I owe Alice a new sweater. A smile appeared on my lips, which quickly disappeared again given the skull snake on my arm. It squirmed constantly. I looked at it with mixed feelings. I touched it very gently. Instantly it was jet black and began to pulsate. What a bummer, I thought, and started to bandage the thing. If someone saw it... I was screwed.

Please Alice, be trustworthy, I prayed and let myself fall on the bed. This would be a tough year...


	8. Finally

_Alice:_

_"Alice, are you even listening to me?" Startled I looked at Harry, who had just asked me a question. In my thoughts, I was still at the Quidditch final, even though the school had begun again today. _

_"No, I'm sorry. But I'll start now." I said with an apologetic look. _

_"... Welcome with us the girls of the Beauxbatons School!" Dumbledore said, pointing to the door. The door opened and let a lot of running blue dressed girls in...? No. Hopping and strolling suited their movements better. _

_"Ow," I heard two voices in the back of the room. I looked around and saw Theo and Blaise, both rubbing their heads. Between them sat Mary, who held a large book in her hands and looked angry. Beside me I heard a sigh. It was Ron, who was gazing adoringly at these girls. _

_"Close your mouth, you're drooling." I said. _

_"And next, the young men of Durmstrang!" Dumbledore said, and everyone began clapping again._

_The door opened and this time the students of Durmstrang entered the Great Hall. Almost all the girls started to chuckle and whisper in excitement, when they saw the boys._

_"Oy Mary, can you hear me?" I heard Theo whisper._

_I turned around and saw that Mary was somehow paralyzed and staring at Viktor Krum. Theo waved his hand in front of her face, but she didn't notice anything. What was so great about this Krum? The Durmstrangs sat down at the Slytherin table with Krum sitting down exactly between Mary and Blaise. It looked like Mary was dying of joy on the inside right now. _

_Dumbledore began to speak about the Triwizard Tournament. This year would certainly be difficult, if those other schools were going to stay here._

Mary:

I couldn't believe it! Krum just sat down next to me!

"What's your name?"

I slowly turned my head around. Viktor Krum was looking at me. "Mary. My name is Mary. " I said breathlessly.

"A beautiful name." He replied in a broken English.

Don't blush, don't blush, I told myself.

"Mary! Hey Mary!" Nott hissed next to me.

"What," I mumbled absently.

"... In the winter a Christmas Ball will take place in celebration of the Triwizard Tournament. This year the Men will have the honour. This means that the gentlemen have to ask the ladies out." Dumbledore announced.

Oh wow. A ball. The dream of every girl. But I wasn't really looking forward to it.

"What do you see in this guy?" Theo asked in a whisper tone.

"He is brilliant on the broom and he looks amazing." I gushed.

Theo grumbled something of learning to fly and turned to his food. I raised my eyebrows. What was wrong with him?

"Theo? Everything okay?" I had already noticed that something was wrong at the Quidditch final.

"Yeah, sure." He muttered, stuffing the food into his mouth.

"Theo, don't lie to me. Hey, tell me!'' He looked up at me and sighed.

"I'm in love." He said softly.

What?! At first I was flooded with a feeling of jealousy. As time passed I had grown very fond of him... "Oh, who is it?''

Theo blushed and looked away.

"No. You know what? It doesn't matter, you don't have to tell me." I said, standing up.

I had been right. Theo did not love me. He already loved someone else. I ran out of the hall, in the direction of the lake. Why? Why was I so shaken by that? Had I really fallen in love with him? Even Alice had said it! How could I have been so blind? And now, it was too late. Realizing that, hurt. Well... somehow it should be possible to distract myself.

_Alice:_

_I saw Mary practically run out of the great hall. Curiosity took the best of me so I stood up and walked over to the slytherin table._

_''Theo we need to talk.''_

_"And you are?" Krum asked, as he turned to me. _

_"Not interested." I answered coldly._

_Theo rose and came with me. We left the Great Hall and slowly wandered around the school. _

_"Youu... probably heard what happened?" He asked cautiously. I shook my head which prompted Theo to explain the situation to me._

_"I think it's good that you want to confess your feelings, but you went about this the wrong way! This was some horrible timing!'' I said firmly. _

_"...Sooo, what should I do?" He asked uncertainly._

_"First of all, nothing. I'll talk to her, and then you're going to invite her to the yule ball within the next two days. If all goes well, you can tell her that you like her, but until then... Don't say anything that could confuse the situation even more!'' I told him bluntly. _

_He looked a little overwhelmed at first but then he nodded. "Thank you, Alice." He said and hugged me briefly, before he went away. _

_"Hey, Alice. There you are. Come, it's time to eat."_

_I turned around and looked at Harry, who was waiting for me. _

_I smiled and reached my hand out to him. He took it and pulled me up to him._

_"I'm starving!"_

Mary:

I sat down at the shore of the lake and watched the Kraken play.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Came a raspy voice behind me. I turned around and looked into the face of a man.

"Who are you?"

"Mad-Eye Moody." He replied harshly.

"The new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

He looked at me. Not at my face though, but at my arm.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing, just a small injury."

"Let me see." He demanded.

"No, never mind. The scar is horrible. "I dodged.

He looked at me obliquely. "Look in my face girl and tell me that this scar looks nice"

Muttering I said: "I got mine from a pole."

"What?"

There was a small smile on his face.

"You got yours in a fight, I got mine because of a pole."

He laughed. "That's your excuse? A pole?"

What? Excuse? This guy made me angry. Of course it sounded weird, but he couldn't know that it was a lie.

"It's no excuse.'' I hissed angrily.

My eyes sparkled and out of sheer anger I suddenly spoke Parseltongue. "You cheeky bastard." I said.

Startled, he recoiled. "You can speak Parseltongue?"

"Oh, come on, you black magic hunter. By the way my name is Mary Riddle. Remember that!" I turned away, stood up and walked in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

In front of the first tree I stopped and climbed. Once on the crown I looked up at the castle and saw Moody going up the stairs. When he tried to open the door, it swung open of its own accord and Alice came out. He looked at her for a couple of seconds and it seemed like he was studying her. Even from here, I could see that she was annoyed by his behaviour. Alice decided to ignore him and instead, looked around.

"Are you looking for me?" I asked as if she stood right next to me. I had no doubt that she would hear me.

Her head turned to the forest and she detected me on the tree. Without a warning, she dashed to the tree. Moody was taken aback and tried to see where she went. Without success. It was flat out impossible because well, she was too fast to track. I guess he didn't know that there was a Vampire at this School. She climbed up the tree within seconds.

"Yes." A slight smile played on her lips.

"Well what is it?"

_Alice:_

_"What happened before dinner? And I'm not talking about the conversation, I mean what happened to you." I said, looking at her questioningly._

_"Nothing. Nothing happened." She said a bit too fast. _

_"I can feel your pulse, stop trying to lie." I said bored and made myself a bit more comfortable._

_"I was angry. All of you always told me that Theo loves me, but that's not true!"_

_"Did he tell you that he doesn't love you?''_

_"No but-"_

_"Did he say a name?"_

_"No, but I-" _

_''__"Then where is the problem? He said no name and you feel nothing for him, right?"_

_"Yes, no, I don't know." She said confused. So, there was a problem. Not as if I hadn't known that already._

_"Mary... could it be that you have feelings for him?" I asked gently. _

_"I don't know. Theo was always like a brother and best friend to me. I have never thought that there could be more. Even now I think like that, but when he said that he was in love, I was suddenly jealous. I can't explain that." Mary looked totally exhausted. Soo I decided to let the issue rest partially._

_"Did you know that Gryffindor and Slytherin are going to have the dance lessons together?" I asked her, to change the subject. _

_Her expression was relaxed and she looked grateful for the change of subject._

_"Oh yes? How do you know?" She asked curiously._

_"Aunt Minerva has already told me everything. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the dancing and the ball in general. What about you?" I asked with a smile. _

_An uncertain smile appeared on her face._

_"When I was little, my grandma showed me a few steps, but I've forgotten them already. I just hope that someone will ask me." Her voice trailed off at this sentence, and her cheeks got slightly red. I laughed merrily and put my hand on her shoulder. _

_"I'm sure that somebody will ask. Now come on, we have to go back before it gets dark." I said, and wanted to jump down, but Mary stopped me. "What?" _

_"When I climbed up, I didn't really think about how to get back down." She admitted slightly embarrassed. I rolled my eyes, but grinned anyway and took her on my back. I jumped down and landed on the ground. _

_"Alice..." Mary and me turned our heads to the voice and discovered Seamus standing there. I let Mary down. _

_"Go get something to eat Mary, you're probably hungry since you left before dinner. I still have to do something that I should have done two years ago."_

_"Well... see you." Mary said, and went back to the castle._

Mary:

,,Mary.'' I turned around. Theo was standing in front of the Stairs.

,,What do you want?'' I asked him.

,,Would you be my Date for the Ball?''

,,What? What about the Girl that you love?''

,,She's standing in front of me. I'm asking her right now…'' Shocked I looked at him.

,,You mean me? And before at the Table, you meant me too?'' I whispered.

Nodding, he came closer, took my face in his hands and leaned in to me.

,,Theo?'' I breathed.

He didn't say anything, he just leaned in closer. I blushed deeply. And then his lips finally met mine. Unsure and softly at first, but then he became more tender and demanding. I put my hands on his chest.

When we let go of each other, I noticed, that Malfoy was on the ground and that Alice towered over him. What the heck? Did I miss something?

,,Eh guys?'' I asked a bit hesitant. Alice turned in my direction.

,,Oh don't let us disturb you. I've got everything under control over here.'' The last sentence was directed at Malfoy.

Confused I looked at them. ,,Why is he…''

,,You don't even need to know.'' She said and pulled Draco with her. He was rambling something I couldn't understand.

,,Mary, you haven't answered my question yet.'' Theo won my attention.

A shining smile appeared on my face. ,,Of course, I'll go with you!'' I put my arms around him and pressed him firmly against me.

,,You have no Idea how long I've waited for this.'' He whispered, after he placed a kiss on my forehead.

,,Let's go to the common room.'' I said and entwined my fingers with his. He was smiling too.

_Alice:_

_Once Mary had disappeared in the Castle, I went to Seamus._

_"How did you get down here?" He asked, taking a step backwards. _

_"That's ... I'm going to explain that to you, but first I have a confession to make. The girl from two years ago, the one that healed you... that was me." I said slowly. _

_"What? That can't be. If that was true, you would have been full of injuries, but you weren't. You were in perfect health."_

_" That's because I heal faster than others. I think it's easier to explain if I show you." _

_Still a bit hesitant I bit my arm and showed it Seamus. At first he looked at me, as if I was deranged, but as soon as my arm started to heal his eyes got big._

_"How... are you doing this?" He asked, confused. Poor Seamus, this had to be really weird for him. _

_"I'm half vampire, Seamus. I am different from you, but that does not really matter. I just wanted you to know who that girl was, so that you could stop searching for her." I told him. _

_He looked as if he wouldn't understand the world anymore. I couldn't leave him like that. I looked him straight in the eye and decided to do what I hated so much. It would probably be the best for him. _

_"You'll forget this whole encounter. You will think of that night two years ago as a dream. I'm sorry Seamus, but this is the only way." I told him. _

_Maybe it wasn't fair and I knew that, but this was the best way to end his search and at the same time, to keep my heritage to myself. After I left him standing there, I entered the building and almost immediately stopped. I saw and heard Mary talk to Theo. A smile appeared on my face that instantly vanished when a voice I knew too well emerged. _

_"What are you doing Alice?" _

_I rolled my eyes and turned around. "Nothing, Draco." _

_But he did not believe me, instead his eyebrows shot up doubtingly. He came to the door and when he saw the scene, he suddenly wanted to go in between. I stopped him in time and pushed him to the ground. _

_"Oh no, you won't." I hissed. What was he thinking? _

_"Get off me." Draco said angrily, he kept looking over to Theo and Mary. It didn't make any sense, he seemed in some kind of distress. _

_Suddenly, the others had noticed us. "Eh guys?" _

_Damn. After a few short sentences, I pulled Draco away from there and down an empty corridor._

_"Listen Draco, I do not know what you were up to back there, but if you do something to destroy this relationship I will do everything I can, to make your life harder, than it ever was. You will not ruin Theos happiness. Do you understand?! "I asked in a serious tone. _

_Draco looked at me blankly before turning his head away. He refused to face me. I still didn't understand, why he tried to stop the kiss. I watched him closely, because I hoped, that I could find a clue. Sadly, nothing like that was visible. Sighing I turned around and tried to go away._

_"Alice.'' I should walk away, but it didn't feel right. The way he had softly said my name made my fingers tingle. So I stepped back towards him._

_''__Why do you always meddle in things that have nothing to do with you?'' It almost sounded like an accusation. _

_''__I don't know. Why do you do it? Pretty sure this had nothing to do with you.'' This seemed to anger him. His face contorted into a nasty grimace._

_''__You don't know anything about me.''_

_I would almost have laughed if the situation hadn't been rather serious. Annoyed I took a couple of steps closer to him, stopping right in front of him. His grimace stayed as he looked down on me._

_''__You're right Draco, there is so much I don't know about you. But I am not blind either. I can see your arrogance basically radiating off of you with every step you take. I see all those nasty things you do to people around you, especially Harry and Hermione. And you know what? It makes me furious. No, actually it feels like I am falling into madness when I am around you. I understand that your blood is so much higher up than mine and that this is an important factor in your life. But I can also see that you do have a good side. You are so smart, your grades are nearly perfect and I know that you are not a bad person. You're just a prick.''_

_''__Then why don't you just stay away from me?" He snarled._

_"Somehow Draco, I have found it practically impossible to do just that." I answered with a scoff._

_''__Maybe it's time you try harder.'' He demanded._

_I looked at him and a thousand things crossed my mind that I would have loved to say, but in the end, I just turned around and left him there. He was right, maybe it would be better to keep a clear distance. _

Mary:

When we arrived in the common room, I actually thought that we would be undisturbed and alone, but our entire clique sat in front of the fireplace. They turned and saw us holding hands.

"Finally.", Sighed the Greengrass-sisters, only Blaise looked puzzled. Again, I began to smile.

"Can you please leave us alone?" Theo asked and hugged me.

Astoria looked knowingly and dragged the two away. We sat down on the sofa and he put his arm around my shoulder.

"What are we now?" He whispered, looking into the fire.

"Does together sound good to you?" I whispered back and put my head on his shoulder. He did not answer and I got a bit worried but then he just smiled and looked at me like I was the most beautiful being on this World.

When I was drifting away into the land of dreams, he said: "That sounds perfect."


	9. Unexpected events

Mary:

The day passed quickly and the next ones too. From all sides I could hear the 'I told you's and ignored them successfully. Through Theo I almost forgot the mark, which was emblazoned on my left forearm. The keyword being almost.

Today was the draw of the champions and everyone had gathered in the Great Hall.

"Silence Please! Silence students!"

Instantly the noise died down. "Today is the day, the Goblet of Fire has chosen and will tell us the name. From each school only one champion will be able to participate." Said Dumbledore while striding towards the cup.

Slowly the blue flames turned red and the first name was released.

"The champion for Durmstrang is... Viktor Krum!"

The Durmstrang cheered and Krum walked forward.

Again, the flames changed to red and Dumbledore read the Name out loud.

"The champion for Beauxbaton is Fleur Delacour."

The mentioned girl went to stand next to Krum by the Teachers Table.

"Now, we get to the Hogwarts champion." He smiled slightly, caught the slip of paper and said: "The champion for Hogwarts is... Cedric Diggory."

Oh really? Hufflepuff? The Hufflepuffs roared and cheered for their champion. So, did Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, only our table remained silent. Suddenly the fire turned red again and a little piece of paper flew out of it in Dumbledore's hand.

"Harry Potter."

All heads turned to the fourteen-year-old and Dumbledore calmly repeated the words. Shocked I studied Harry. It was quiet as a mouse in the Hall. How in the hell had he put his name in there?!

_Alice:_

_My mind was roaring. It just wasn't possible! Harry's name could not have been in that cup._

_"Calm down Alice, everything is going to get cleared up..." Hermione said to reassure me. But deep down I knew that she was as worried as I was._

_Ten minutes ago, Harry had disappeared out of the great hall with some teachers and for the last ten minutes, I had been going up and down in the Gryffindor common room. _

_"How did he do that?" Ron asked quietly. _

_"He didn't do anything. He wasn't even able to! He's too young and he indeed did not want to join the competition." I said to Ron. _

_"Yes but-" He stopped suddenly and stood up. _

_"And?" I asked, turning to Harry, who had just walked in the door. _

_"They won't cancel the tournament and they also refused to expel me from it. From now on I officially am a champion in the Triwizard-tournament." He explained while in thought. _

_Hermione fell back on the sofa, Ron's face was difficult to determine, and I... No idea. I did not quite know what to make of it. What had just happened? Why would they make him participate in something so dangerous?_

_"Did you-" _

_"No Hermione I did not put my name in there!" Harry interrupted her in a pissed voice. _

_"I can't hear this question anymore!" Harry said and stormed out of the room. I gave Hermione a worried look and ran after him. _

_"What do you want Alice?" He asked when I had caught up with him. _

_"I thought that you could use a distraction. How about a secret trip to Hogsmeade? You've still got your coat, right?" I asked with a devilish smile. _

_He nodded and smiled at last. _

_"That's the best thing I've heard today." He said relieved._

Mary:

After announcing the names of the champions, the houses went back to their common rooms. After me and Theo had plunged ourselves onto the sofas, Malfoy suddenly came up to us. From the moment he stepped in front of us, I had a bad feeling about this.

"Mary? Are you going to the Yule ball with me?"

Ok, that shocked me. Before I could reply, Theo got up and went so close to Malfoy, that I thought their faces would touch each other.

"You do realize that I'm going to kick your ass, Draco? I am her boyfriend, if you haven't noticed." He hissed and Draco backed away a few steps. I had never seen Theo like this. Normally he was very calm.

"She didn't say no yet..." Now, I interrupted him.

"That's probably not even necessary Draco!" I said angrily. "It's clear that I'm going to say no! I am with Theo and I will go with him. Just leave me alone, I'm really done with you Malfoy." I said and pulled Theo away from the common room. As we stood outside, I gave him a kiss.

''I'm so sorry about this.''

"You don't need to apologize. He does. "

_Alice:_

_" Harry are you here?" I asked, entering the tent that they had put up for the Champions. _

_Today was the 24th November. The day of the first test._

_Ron had told me that it had something to do with Dragons. I had been worried for weeks because of Harry and Ron. The two quarrelled or went out of each other's way._

_"Alice?" _

_I turned to the right and saw Harry standing there. I ran up to him and hugged him. _

_"How are you?" I asked in a whisper. _

_"I'm nervous, what else?" He replied just as quietly. "But what are you doing here?'' _

_"I'm worried about you, it's not every day that you fight a Dragon." I said and pulled away from him. _

_Before I left the tent two minutes later, I turned around one last time. _

_"Oh, and Harry? I'll put everything on you, so please, stay alive." I said with a wink and left the tent. _

_While walking away I saw Hermione standing next to the tent. I smiled at her and then went to Fred and George. They were still down in front of the arena, and gathered money._

_I had 200 pieces of gold in a small bag and let it fall in George's hand." I put everything on Harry. I bet that he survives and gets first place." I said sure of myself._

_"Woah, you've got a lot of confidence in him." George started._

_"But don't come crying to reclaim your money, if he loses." Fred finished, George's sentence._

_"Absolutely not!" I said with a triumphant smile. _

_"George, she scares me." Fred said._

_"Will you finally join me?"_

_We all looked to the entrance. Dimé stood there and waited for the two redheads. _

_"See you, Alice!", George said while leaving. _

_I waved goodbye and turned around. And I stared directly into blue eyes. _

_"Where are you going?" Ron asked curiously. _

_"Actually, I was just... ah, never mind," I sighed._

_"Okay, then we can watch the tournament together." Ron said and pulled me to the seats._

_I wanted to watch the tournament from further away. My ears will hurt very badly, because of all these people and their unnecessary shouting. I looked at Ron and saw a slight smile on his face. I sighed in defeat. Well, then. At least I would spend some time with Ron, without him and Harry pissing each other off._

Mary:

I was not surprised that Harry had won first place, along with Viktor. But unlike most of my house members I was happy for him and also kind of relieved that he was still alive. When the excitement had subsided Professor Snape took us to the Great Hall, where the Gryffindor stood and stared at us dumbfounded. I wondered what was wrong with them, but my question answered itself when McGonegall began to speak.

''So students, we are here to practice for the Yule Ball today. You could say, that a Ball is a dance and that's why you will learn the waltz today.''

Now our mouths fell open. But I observed all of that with a big smile on my face. This moment was pure Karma. The Slytherins totally deserved it to have those lessons with the Gryffindors. But my laugh froze, as McGonegall walked to Snape. They wouldn't...?! But when Snape put his hand on McGonegalls hip, my suspicions were confirmed and I had trouble to keep in my laughter. When they had finished their dance, they divided us into groups by distributing tickets with names on it. I was the first to draw and when Minerva said the names out loud I couldn't contain myself anymore. I had pulled Theo, Malfoy, Astoria, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Alice.

''So now stand together in a circle. The men on the inside and the women in front of their partners. You will also be changing partners, so that all women have danced once with all the men. The goal is for you to feel how everyone dances a little different.''

''We do this so long until it sits. '', Informed us Snape.

Wow, they really wanted to torture us. I positioned myself in front of Theo, who smiled at me lovingly. I blushed and put my hand into his. Suddenly I sensed a feeling as if thousands of butterflies were flying around in my stomach and I blushed even more. I think that was really love I felt there. The dance began and Theo pulled me closer to him. I smiled happily. Learning the waltz would be so fun... with him definitely.

''Change! ''

Theo passed me up to his neighbour and I stifled a sigh. I looked straight into Malfoy's eyes. How annoying... but I had to admit, he wasn't bad at dancing.

_Alice:_

_Who had had the stupid idea to let Mary draw the names?! Her fortune was horrible. Aunt Minerva had hushed all the Boys to stand in a circle and we had to put ourselves in front of one. I stood in front of Harry, Hermione stood before Ron, Mary went to Theo and Astoria to Draco. We took the starting position and we started to dance, when the first sound of music filled our ears. Snape and Auntie showed us the steps and we had to repeat them. The dance with Harry was a bit awkward at first, since he was clearly not used to this kind of dance, but after a moment it got easier. _

_''Change!'' Snape suddenly yelled and I was swirled to the right. I ended up in Ron's arms. He had trouble to look me in the eyes, because his eyes stayed clued to his feet. I broke a hand and raised his head, so that he would look at me._

_''Look into my eyes Ron, it will be fine. Let yourself feel the music and give in to it.'' I said, smiling._

_Ron, who was slightly red, nodded. From the corner of my eye I could see how Dimé gut pulled into the Room by Minerva. She said something about odd numbers and placed Dimé next to George, who was slightly red. I looked back at Ron, who also smiled and still had reddish cheeks._

_''Change!''_

_This time I ended up in Theo's arms. He smiled gently and we began to dance. _

_''__Does this remind you of something too?'' He asked me with a provocative smile._

_''The summer of 1986, the family party in your garden. At that time, you wanted to cheer me up, because you had heard the story about my father. You kept me on the dance floor all the time, so I had no time to be worried about him. At that time though, you stomped on my feet more times than you do now.'' I said with a grin. _

_''I didn't stand on your feet o- '', at this very moment he stood on my foot. He blushed slightly but laughed anyway. ''That was mean and totally your own fault for distracting me.'' As a slight revenge he tickled me, and I burst out laughing._

Mary:

Somewhat embarrassed, I looked at Harry, who only smiled encouragingly at me and stood on my feet at the very first step. I laughed.

''Dancing is probably not your thing what?'' I asked.

He shook his head.

''Mine neither.'' I laughed again and looked to my left.

Hermione was dancing with Malfoy they kept each other as far away as possible. As Hermione's gaze grazed mine with so much suffering that I seriously worried whether she would survive this hour. The poor girl.

''You're not acting like a Slytherin.'' Harry said.

''Thank you for the nice compliment. '' I said with a grin.

''Change!'' It rang again and I ended up in the arms of Ron.

''Ron Look me in the eye.'' I asked, and he did so after a brief hesitation. ''See? It works.'' I smiled.

He also didn't seem to be used to the dancing. But he really gave his best. I had been right after all. The Gryffindors really weren't bad even though most Slytherins didn't feel this way. So, this really seemed to be Karma.

_Alice:_

_After Theo, came Draco's turn. He had caught me after a rotation and drew me very close to himself. _

_''Alice.'' He said coolly. _

_''Draco. '' I replied in the same tone. Silence fell upon us. Our last encounter, still very much on my mind._

_''__I didn't know that you could dance this well.'' He said surprised but with a slightly contemptuous undertone. I laughed lightly, because I was already used to this sound of his voice. _

_''I grew up in this school. Believe me, I've participated in many dance lessons. In addition to that, there is much you do not know about me.'' I said politely with a trace of disdain. An obvious jab at what he had said to me last time. _

_It was silent after that and then he suddenly opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by Snape's harsh voice. _

_''Change! '' Snape walked straight through the crowd, and gave those a blow to the head, who made moved in a wrong way. I let myself whirl into the next pair of arms and then ended the dance with Harry. _

_After class, I left the room and ran to the tower with the post owls._

_Once again, I had sent the Ministry a letter, this time because of what Sirius had said. It made me curious. I saw Harry on the stairs in front of me. He had almost entered the Tower, when he suddenly stopped. As I came closer I saw Cho Chang. So that's why he had stopped. I could hear Harry stutter a few words. From what I knew, he had started to develop a crush on her. Was he going to... What an idiot. On the other hand, I felt sorry for him. He probably hadn't heard all the talk about Cho and Cedric. Harry really wasn't informed about what was happening around here. That would be embarrassing for him. I ran up the stairs and just as he was going to say the words, I interrupted him. _

_''Cho! Diggory's looking for you. He wants to ask you something about your date to the Yule ball.'' I said in calm voice and then quickly glanced at Harry. Cho thanked me and left. Harry walked quietly to his owl and I went to mine. _

_''Did he really want something from her? '' He asked after a few silent minutes._

_''No.'' I answered honestly._

_''Thank you. Although I have no idea how you knew about it but thank you for sparing me the embarrassment.'' _

_I looked back and smiled warmly. He had a letter in his hand and was leaning against the wall while facing me. I took my letter from the owl and then imitated Harry's position. _

_''Would you accompany me?'' He asked. _

_''Maybe.'' _

_''Do you already have a date? ''_

_''__No, but it's a bit late to ask, don't you think?'' Harry didn't seem to understand what I meant. At the same time this wasn't surprising, considering, that he had much more important things on his mind these days._

_''You could have asked a bit sooner, but you could also have asked Hermione in time.'' '_

_''That's a no, then?'' He asked. _

_''Wrong.'' _

_'__'Wrong?'' _

_''Yes, wrong. I will accompany you, but next time you should not ask only two weeks before the event '' I said with a smile and left._

_It was time to go shopping, but with whom? I looked around and discovered Theo with Mary standing outside. Well Theo will have to live without her for a little while._

_''Hey Mary, would you like to keep me company and go shopping?'' I asked, while jumping over the last three steps._

Mary:

A bit surprised I looked at her, before a smile flashed across my face. ''Sure. I just need to go and get my money.'' I was about to leave, when Theo gave me a bag of galleons. ''No Theo, absolutely not! I've got my own money.'' I said and gave him a kiss, then I turned away and left. When I came back, Theo had left.

''Where...?''I stopped myself when I saw Alice smile. She had obviously sent him away.

''Shall we?''

I nodded.

Once we arrived in Hogsmeade, we realised, that there was only one store to buy gowns.

''I must say, there aren't really much options.'' I said.

''Let's hope for the best.''

She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shop. I had never been so wrong. The shop might have seemed small from the outside, but now that I actually stood here, all my senses where overthrown by the sheer number of options I had.

''I think we might find our luck in here.'' I commented while walking through the shelves. I grabbed a couple of dresses that caught my eye, before going into a wardrobe.

We spent hours trying on dresses. Some were very funny, while others were just weird. But in the end, we both found the dresses we liked the most. Before we paid, Alice reminded me to buy a couple of gloves to cover my mark. While I chose a pair of gloves, Alice went back to the shelves and picked an elegant suit and a black tie.

''How can you pay for all that?'' I asked her.

''I won a bet against Fred and George. But that's not really important. Come on, let's pay and then we can go back to Hogwarts.''

_Alice:_

_When we were back at Hogwarts, we parted ways and I went to the Gryffindor common room. It was empty except for Harry, who had a suit on and Ron who was wearing... something. _

_''What is that? '' I asked, aghast._

_''My Mom sent me this. It's terrible.'' Ron said in a whining voice. _

_''__Well that's nice from her. I got you a present too.'' I threw him one of the bags I was carrying. It was a magical quill, that wrote things down on its own._

_''Merry Christmas and have fun with it.'' I said with a smile and went happily up the stairs to the dormitory._

_When I came Hermione sat on her bed, holding up an extremely beautiful light blue dress. _

_''Your dress for the ball? You will look wonderful in it.''_

_She turned abruptly and seemed reassured when she saw me. _

_''Thank you. But I'm not so sure. '' She said with a rather sad smile. How odd. _

_''__Hermione what's wrong?'' I put my bags away and sat down on her bed. She huffed and let herself plummet down next to me. _

_''__It's Ron. And Harry. Gosh this sounds so stupid when I say it like that!''_

_''__That's fine, we can sort it out. One after the other.''_

_''__Ron is such a disloyal prick! When he was mad at Harry, I tried to mend things between them. And now that I have a date for the ball, he has the gall to try and make me feel bad about it! He doesn't support me. Same with Harry. He just doesn't say anything to defend me. Aren't I his friend too?'' Her cheeks were slightly puffy, and her eyes started to tear up._

_''__Of course you're his friend! Oh Hermione… don't let this get to you. Harry is so overwhelmed with everything going on, he probably didn't even listen to Ron when he said it. And Ron is just jealous of Krum! Because Viktor is very charming and good at quidditch and definitely because he'll have the most beautiful companion tonight.''_

_I took Hermione's hand and smiled at her. ''You'll look wonderful and you will have a great time, believe me.'' I said in a reassuring voice. _

_''__Thank you, Alice, at least I can count on you.'' Hermione smiled and as she looked away, she spotted my bags. _

_''Your dress?''_

_I nodded happily and took the dress out of it's bag and held it up in front of me. I stood up and waited anxiously for her response. Her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands. _

_''It's beautiful!'' She exclaimed. _

_I thanked her and then we went through the remaining bags. Since I had bought some jewellery, I gave her some of it, so that she had accessories for her dress. The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting and laughing together in the bedroom as we got prepared for the evening event._


	10. Confusions

_Confusions_

Mary:

Completely happy I watched myself in the Mirror. It was the night of the Yule Ball and I had curled my brown hair and put it up into a fancy bun. Next to me stood Alice, who had her hair cascading down her shoulders and her back. Some strands of her hair were pulled back into a little bun on the back of her head. She was beautiful in the light pink dress, that went down her body like waves. It was the first time I saw her with such a shining smile.

As I looked back into the mirror I noticed, that I was shining too. I really looked beautiful in my dark green dress with silver ornaments. I had chosen this dress, cause the colour of it matched my eyes.

We really looked beautiful, our dates should feel honoured about this. A slight smile crossed my lips on that thought while I put my white gloves on. Specifically chosen, to hide my dark mark.

,,Are you ready?'' I looked up at Alice and nodded. We left the toilet, in front of which, Hermione was waiting.

On the top of the stairs we stopped and looked down. My eyes immediately found Theo and I had to hold my breath. My heart started to beat faster and suddenly I was nervous. He was dead gorgeous in his black suit. Lovingly he held his hand out to me and I almost ran down the stairs just to get to him.

''You look beautiful.'' He whispered into my ear as I hugged him. Together we walked towards the tables. The room was decorated in an impressive winter tone. This school really was magical beyond my wildest dreams.

We had to wait for the champions to come in with their dates and have the first dance, before we could move to the dancing area too. I was having a fantastic time with Theo. He was a great dancer. After a while we went back to the tables because we both needed a break. We were talking and laughing when suddenly Malfoy showed up with two butterbeers in his hands.

''Would one night without having the displeasure of seeing your face be too much to ask?'' Theo said while slightly leaning towards me. He made it very obvious that Draco wasn't welcome.

''What do you want?'' I asked exasperated.

''To apologize.''

Theo burst out laughing. ''Oh, that's rich. Isn't this getting old Draco?'' But the other boy just ignored him and continued to stare at me. I wasn't a bad person after all, how could I say no to an apology?

''You know, I can't just forgive you for everything you've done. But I will accept your apology under one condition. You have to behave yourself.'' Malfoys stern expression was replaced with his signature smug smile and if I didn't know any better I would have thought this to be a trap. But that couldn't be, right? He handed me a beer.

''Let's do this like civilized people and toast.'' My glance quickly went to Theo, who wasn't letting his eyes move off of Draco, analysing every move he made, then I took the beer and drank a sip. Draco's smile vanished and he put his beer down.

''Now that we established that, how about a dance with me?'' Not actually giving me the time to answer, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along to the dancefloor.

_Alice_

_I was slowly making my way away from the buffet table, towards Theo. In my hands were two pieces of cake. One Cheesecake and one chocolate. I had a small hope that this would heighten his mood, cause he looked like a panther ready to jump. _

''_Earth to space Invader, are you there?'' I said, while putting one plate down in front of him. Theos attention shifted to me and the cake. Without saying anything he picked up a fork and started eating the cheesecake. Something was off. It was rare for me to see Theo this cold. This was the part of his personality he mostly showed to strangers. The oddity of this situation made me shudder._

''_What is going on?'' _

''_I'm not quite sure yet. But what I do know is that the ferret over there is planning something.'' He used the fork to point in the direction of the dancefloor. I turned my head and in between the masses I saw Draco dancing with Mary. If one didn't count our short encounter at the dance lessons, it had been months since the last time I had met him. I still felt a light jab when I thought about the argument we had had. Or more like, him telling me off. And since then I've done exactly what I told myself I would, I kept my distance. Getting involved with Malfoy was a bad idea. I knew it, Theo knew it and so should Mary, so why was she dancing with him?_

''_Now that is an unusual sight.''_

''_Unusual? More like idiotic. I like Mary, but she's too trusting. Malfoy just showed up here and spilled some bloody excuse that can't have been serious. I'm telling you Alice, something doesn't seem right. And if I find out what it is, Malfoy is going to regret messing with me.''_

_A bad feeling came over me. Years before we started at Hogwarts, a boy whose name I have long forgotten, was once going off at Theo because of his father. It was a well-known fact that Mr Nott had been fighting on the side of he who shall not be named during the first wizarding war. He hadn't been sent to Azkaban jut like Lucius Malfoy. Money may have been involved in this, but nevertheless, the Wizengamot didn't prosecute him, which allowed Mr Nott to raise Theo, after the death of his Wife. Mrs Nott was the reason why Theo and I could be friends in the first place. She may have been a pureblood, but she was also an elderly woman who had seen a lot in her life. She accepted me as a part of Theo's life. It would probably have become a problem if in the future we were to get married, but as a friend, she had accepted and even liked me. When she died, I was there for Theo and Mr Nott, as cold as he could be, never stopped Theo from spending time with me. Instead he hid our friendship from other people, surely, to protect his son's status. _

_In any case, this boy that run his mouth and insulted Theo's father and Mother came to quickly regret his behaviour. Theo told me the story when we met at Hogwarts shortly after the incident. He asked me for my help, so we snuck into the Library that day and while I made sure, that no one saw us, Theo looked through a couple magical books. They weren't from the forbidden section, but Minerva didn't want us to read too many books, that were planned as schoolbooks for the higher grades. At that point, I didn't know what Theo was looking for, but I would eventually find out as I got a letter from him a couple of weeks after our little excursion. He confessed that he had hexed the boy with the Mutatio Skullus, which basically meant that this boy had his whole head mutated. From what I could gather, Theo wasn't feeling guilty and his dad wasn't angry with him either, but he had him stay at home for a couple of days after which, their relationship had taken a turn for the worse. Theo didn't tell me what exactly had happened in that time, but he did say that his father wanted to show him what true hexes were, since he decided to hurt others. After that, Theo made sure to keep his adventures hidden from his father and we never talked about this incident again. _

''_You know what, I think we both need a distraction, how about we finish the butterbeers that stand here and go for a dance?'' I said while putting the empty plate down. Theo sighed and looked at the beers._

''_Yeah, maybe that's a good idea. Take this one though, the other belonged to Malfoy, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to tarnish yourself with his saliva.''_

_My face twitched, as the memory of our kiss from two years ago came up in my mind. ''Yeah.'' I said while evading Theo's eyes and grabbed the other butterbeer. I raised the glass to my face when I was suddenly hit with a weirdly enticing smell. Curiously I smelled the beer._

''_You said this was Mary's right? But then why does it smell like… well, like Malfoy's shampoo?'' I lifted my gaze to meet the confused face of Theo. _

''_What?'' He grabbed the glass and smelled the content.'' This smells like Mary and Hibiscuses.'' Now it was my turn to look at him all confused. But all of a sudden realization came over Theo and he gave the glass back to me. ''What did you say it smells like? Take a good whiff.'' So I did._

''_Hm, I still smell Malfoy's shampoo, but also… Sunflowers? And a hint of Peaches.'' I could see Theo's mind rattling as he was quickly processing the information. Then he stood up and grabbed my arm._

''_We'll still talk about this whole shampoo thing, but right now, we have serious problem and I need your help. I think, no I am certain that Malfoy put Amortentia into Mary's glass and it's probably already taking effect.'' Theo had pulled me from my chair, and we were now walking through the crowd. _

''_Amortentia? The advanced and extremely dangerous Love potion? But that's not on our level yet! Do you really think Draco would be able to produce an efficient one on his own?''_

''_No, his potion's skills aren't bad, but this is too advanced for him.'' He suddenly stopped, turned around and whispered: ''Honestly, I think his dad had something to do with it. This is probably his plan to get into the good graces of you know who. Bring him his blood as an excuse for not having tried to bring him back.''_

_I paled. ''Theo, are you saying…'' I lowered my voice even more and met his serious gaze with a distressed one. ''Do you think that he will come back?'' More than anything in the world I was hoping that he would say no right now. Every sound in the room was being drowned out by the beating of our hearts. Blood was rushing in my ears._

''_In his last letter my dad said he can feel darkness rising in his bones and to start selecting my friends more carefully. I know he believes that you know who will be back and that Lucius Malfoy helped his son to get Mary on their side, makes me think that he believes it too. '' Those were horrible news. Terrifying, even. _

''_But if that's the case, we should tell Professor Dumbledore.'' _

''_He's probably already aware of it, besides, right now, Mary needs our help first.'' My mind was racing as I looked around the room scanning the people until my eyes met Draco's. I was able to focus, and determination came over me. I gave Theo's hand a little pressure and made him look in the right direction. _

''_So, what's the game plan?'' I asked. Theo discreetly looked around, before getting a hold of my waist and slowly swaying us to the music. _

''_A direct approach isn't going to work. He'll just order Greg and Goyle to keep us away from Mary.''_

''_I would love to see him try.'' I said in defiance._

''_Alice. This isn't a situation where your Gryffindor bravery is going to save the day.'' There was some harshness in his words, but I knew that this wasn't the moment to feel hurt by his words. I wanted to suggest telling a teacher, but then they would certainly want to keep a closer eye on Mary and her dark mark would be exposed, which might just put her in more danger, so I bit my tongue. _

''_I understand, so tell me what I need to do.'' If my Gryffindor bravery wasn't going to save the day, then maybe his cunning side could. Once again, the gears in his head were turning._

''_We need to isolate her somewhere he can't find her. The only known way to fight Amortentia is to either be potions master Horace Slughorn or to let the Potion loose it's effect over time. If Draco can't continuously give her a dose, she'll regain her consciousness on her own. One of us will have to be with her nonstop to make sure she doesn't try to run back to him. Which means, she can't have her wand on her.''_

''_Well it is Friday, so keeping her locked up over the weekend would be the smartest decision if we don't want the teachers to notice and she's not wearing her Wand right now.''_

_Theo had already taken this into consideration, as his only response was a slight nod._

''_Alright, I got it figured out. I will go over there and get Mary away from him. I'm quite sure he'll allow it, cause he's expecting her to break my heart.''_

''_Wouldn't it be easier if I just manipulated her to follow me away from him?''_

''_Normally yes, but since her mind is already clouded by the potion, I don't know what might happen and I don't want to risk it. I'll get away from him, but he won't stay still long, he's too paranoid if his father is really involved. So, what I need you to do, is go after him and keep him occupied long enough, for me to actually get her into our secret room. I've been making some research on the castle and I think I know how to get in there.''_

''_Theo, I need to admit, that you are quite brilliant sometimes.''_

_He gave me a cunning smirk. ''I am always brilliant. Now, let's make sure that this works. You should start a conversation with someone while I go get Mary out of here. We need to act normally until it's too late for Malfoy to realize what's going on.''_

_I nodded and had a quick look around to find one of my friends somewhere._

''_And Alice… thank you, for trusting me and having my back.'' _

_I smiled and slightly touched his cheek. ''How could I not?'' I winked at him before turning around and walking to where Fred and George were standing with Dimé._

Mary:

Darco's smell. Draco's eyes. Draco's smile. Everything he did was so enticing to me. I was so happy to be in his arms right now. Was he happy too? Did he feel like I did in this moment? His face didn't give anything away, but he was so handsome that it just filled me with happiness to look at him.

''Draco. Mary.'' I turned my head and saw Nott standing there. ''How about we go for a stroll, Mary?'' Nott smiled. Confusion spread out in me. Why would I want to go with him, when I was with Draco. Nott must have seen my confusion because he slightly touched my hand with his and I quickly pulled back. His face was like a façade.

''Well I think it would be a nice idea to get a little bit of air, why don't we all go?'' Draco said with what must have been the most beautiful smile I've ever seen on his face.

''If you want to go, then so do I!'' I said with a smile. Hopefully he thought that I was pretty when I smiled. My eyes were practically glued to his head as I followed him towards the exit of the room. The whole room was a blur until something red came up and bumped into Draco. My eyes fixated on the obstacle and I realized that it was Alice. Why was she here? Did she hurt Draco? Was he looking at her? Why would he look at her? No, he only looked at me. He must since he was dancing with me.

''Oh I'm sorry, I was looking for Harry, he's waiting for me. I didn't look where I was going.'' Now I realized that she had crushed a piece of cake on Draco's shirt. Draco's face turned into a grimace. He seemed to feel uncomfortable.

''Alice you should apologize and then leave.'' I said while constantly glancing towards Draco, to make sure that he was happy about what I just said.

''Well… Harry is still waiting for me, but I would feel bad if I just walked away now, so I think I'll just have to make him wait a bit longer and clean your shirt for you.'' She seemed thoughtful and apologetic.

''I think it'll do Potter good to wait for his date.'' Draco said before turning to me. ''Go have a walk with Nott.''

Why was he saying this? Did he like Alice more than me? Anger was overcoming me. Should I hex her? But I didn't have my wand… Maybe I should go and get it to make sure that no one would disturb Draco and me. But he shouldn't see this side of me. ''Alright, I will be back though, so don't take too long.'' I looked at them until Nott and I had left the room. I hoped this walk wouldn't take long, cause I wanted to get back to Draco.

''So I am not supposed to say this but Draco actually prepared a surprise for you and I am supposed to lead you there.'' Nott said. What? This was wonderful! Of course, Alice had only been there so that Draco could quickly get there and wait for me. This made so much sense. That must mean that he loves me too!

''Can we go there right now?''

''Of course, it's on the seventh floor, just follow me.'' My mind was so clouded by thoughts of Draco that the walk seemed to pass by like a blur. We stopped in front of a big door. ''It's in here, let's go in.'' My mind was racing, behind this door Draco was waiting and he would tell me that he loves me and then everything would be perfect. Eagerly I opened the door and was met with a cosy but empty room.

''Where is Draco?'' I asked while turning around. Nott came in and closed the door.

''Well we came here so fast, he must still be on his way.'' Yes, Draco was definitely coming.

''So what do we do now?'' For the first time, I shifted my attention to Nott. He looked at the wall, where the door had been. Wait, where had the door gone?

''Now, we wait.''

_Alice:_

_,,Should I get my wand, or do you want me to clean your blouse the old fashioned way?'' I asked._

''_I don't want you anywhere near your wand.'' He said._

''_Let's go to the washroom on the second floor then, I doubt that anyone would see us there.'' I said, while leading the way. Surprisingly, he didn't complain. Maybe I wasn't the only one that had felt the distance from the last couple of months. It had been weird, to not have any contact at all._

_I could lose myself in my thoughts right now, but I needed to make sure, that he didn't think about Mary too long. _

''_I saw that you support Cedric in the games. That's pretty cool.'' Which was true, I had noticed his badges and the fact that they were also against Harry, but I didn't want to address that right now._

''_Well it would be only right if Hogwarts won. Or Durmstrang.''_

''_I guess you are a fan of Viktor Krum then. Well it does make sense.''_

''_Krum is a legend. But if I get the chance, I will one day crush him on the field.'' Always this confidence, I smiled. No, I shouldn't smile, he drugged Mary. ''You don't look so pale today.''_

_I couldn't help myself, I gave him a grin. ''Yeah, I caught some sun.'' Draco lifted an eyebrow and then rolled his eyes, but there was a small smile on his face. ''Alright we're here. Boys or girl's washroom?'' I asked. _

''_If you think I'm going into the girl's washroom you must be thick.'' He led the way straight into the boy's bathroom. I followed behind him and saw that he had already started to unbutton his blouse. He was wearing a white shirt underneath it. He passed me his shirt and leaned back on a wall, while I went over to a sink. Once again it was quiet while I rubbed the soap into the once white material._

''_Draco… are you, doing alright?'' I asked shyly. I heard him snort._

''_I'm Draco Malfoy, of course my life is going well.'' Indeed, he was a Malfoy. I turned around and looked at him. It didn't matter if I smelled his shampoo in my goddamn Amortentia, it might as well have been someone else who uses the same one. The Important factor here was, that he was messing with Theo and Mary. He seemed to notice the shift in my mood and became wary._

''_You know, I warned you. I told you to not mess with Theo's relationship. Mary's behaviour back there… it was more than just odd.'' I forgot about the shirt and walked up to him, blocking him against the wall. ''Draco Malfoy who the bloody hell do you think you are? It seems like more and more you are trying to prove to me, that I was wrong about you.'' I put my hand on his chest to keep him against the wall. _

_Draco snorted as he looked down at me. ''This isn't about you.''_

''_No, it's not, and I doubt that it's about you either. So, what are we? Pawns? Bystanders? Who knows, at this point everything could be true. So yeah, all of this isn't about me, but you know what? You and me, are stuck in this game so your behaviour Draco, does affect me. I'd rather get stabbed than just let you treat me like a useless outsider.''_

''_I already told you to stay away from me, that's just better for everyone.'' He grabbed my arm that was pinning him against the wall and put some pressure on it. This proved to me, that he wasn't really scared of me anymore. My heart swelled up a little at that thought. Goddamn. I wanted to pull my arm back, but he used this chance to disturb my balance and push me against the wall instead. ''Somehow it just seems like you're not really good at listening to orders.'' This situation made me uncomfortable, he was too close and out of the blue I caught a whiff of his shampoo. I was in a pure state of distress. Somehow, I had felt my control getting swept away. I wanted to get rid of him. I needed to get away from him. _

''_Or maybe, I am just not good at listening to your orders.'' I mumbled. His face showed confusion as he searched my face for an answer and then suddenly clarity showed on his face. _

''_Bloody hell!'' Anger overtook him and he punched the wall. Then he turned around and basically ran out of the room. I sighed as relief slowly came over me. Surely, I had distracted him long enough for Theo to disappear with Mary. The sound of running water caught my attention. Draco's blouse was still there soaking the water. I took the blouse and left the bathroom, quickly making my way to the Gryffindor tower, not wanting to meet Draco again._

_Once I had entered my bedroom, I went straight to changing into my pyjamas before sitting down on my bed. I noticed that I wasn't alone. As I looked down, I realized that Hermione was laying in my bed. ''Hermione?'' I whispered questioningly. ''Please don't ask, I just need a friend right now.'' She sobbed. Her evening must have been messy too. ''Alright. I'm here for you.'' I laid down beside this poor distressed girl and took her hand to reassure her, that she was in fact not alone. _


End file.
